ABIDJAN, Côte d’Ivoire, 28 April 2025/APO Group
The Board of Directors of the African Development Fund, the concessional window of the African Development Bank Group (www.AfDB.org), approved on 22 April 2025 in Abidjan, a financing package of over $18 million for the Regional Project for the Development of Resilient Rice Value Chains in West Africa – Côte d’Ivoire Component (REWARD-CI).
The $21.44 million project is funded through an $18.6 million loan from the Fund, with a $2.84 million contribution from the Ivorian government. It will be implemented by the Rice Value Chain Development Agency (ADERIZ), an entity under the Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Equipment and Food Production.
The project will be rolled out over a three-year period in the Bélier and Gbèkè regions (central Côte d’Ivoire) and aims to develop sustainable, climate-smart rice production systems to ensure sufficient quantity and quality of supply to millers. It also seeks to strengthen rice processing cooperatives, agro-industries, and market linkages to facilitate trade; to support political and regulatory reforms, and their harmonisation, for competitive rice value chains against imports.
The project’s implementation will help to bolster food security and sovereignty in West Africa by promoting public and private investment in rice value chains to increase rice self-sufficiency and reduce the region’s import bills by 2030. It will also set the foundation for a more ambitious second phase aimed at attracting further public and private investments, particularly in agricultural processing, input supply, agricultural services, and marketing.
According to Beth Dunford, Vice President for Agriculture, Human and Social Development at the Bank Group, “this project is one of the Bank’s flagship operational responses to financing country Compacts developed during the Dakar 2 Summit, jointly organised by the African Union and the Bank in January 2023 under the theme: Feed Africa: Food Sovereignty and Resilience.”
Around 1,660 producers — including 580 women and 415 young people — will directly benefit from the project, gaining improved access to seeds, fertilisers, pesticides, mechanisation, agricultural equipment, and advisory services. Beyond these direct beneficiaries, the project will also support economic operators in the two target regions, as well as decentralised communities and local offices of the Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Equipment and Food Production.
Media contact:
Alexis Adélé
Department of Communication and External Relations,
media@afdb.org
About the African Development Bank Group:
The African Development Bank Group is Africa’s premier development finance institution. It comprises three distinct entities: the African Development Bank (AfDB), the African Development Fund (ADF), and the Nigeria Trust Fund (NTF). Present in 41 African countries with an external office in Japan, the Bank contributes to the economic development and social progress of its 54 regional member states.
For more information: www.AfDB.org
Source: African Development Bank Group (AfDB)
