African Development Bank Group President Dr Adesina visits Brazil’s President Lula to Foster Investment and Economic Cooperation

African Development Bank Group president, Dr Akinwumi Adesina is travelling to Brazil for a two-day official visit to meet with President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, government officials and the business community to discuss investment opportunities in Africa.

Brazil is keen to strengthen its economic cooperation with Africa across a number of sectors including agriculture and health.

During the visit, Brazil will formalise its membership of the Lusophone Compact, an agreement aimed at developing the private sector in the Portuguese-speaking countries of Africa known as the PALOPs. The move will open up new investment opportunities for Brazil’s private sector in Africa.

“Brazil and the Portuguese-speaking African countries have strong historical, cultural and social ties and we need to work to strengthen economic ties through more investment, trade and cooperation. The Lusophone Compact will be an important instrument for supporting partnerships between the public and private sectors of Brazil and the Portuguese-speaking countries in Africa,” said Simone Tebet, Brazilian Minister of Planning and Budget, in an official announcement about the visit.

The signing ceremony will be attended by members of the Lusophone Compact initiative which was launched in December 2018 following the signing of a five-year Memorandum of Understanding between the African Development Bank, the government of Portugal, Angola, Cape Verde, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé and Principe, and Mozambique.

Brazil’s exports to the African continent totalled $12.7 billion in 2022, mainly covering agricultural produce and equipment, while imports amounted to $8.50 billion, of which most were minerals and industrial raw materials. The main destinations in 2022 for Brazilian exports were Egypt, Algeria, South Africa and Angola.

Brazil’s stock of investments in Africa reached $1.9 billion in 2021, spanning the infrastructure, mining, oil and gas, and renewable energy sectors.

Under the Lusophone Compact Framework, the Bank has since 2019 approved $166.4 million of investments to partially finance projects across the energy and transport sectors, as well as enterprise development initiatives.