OREANDA-NEWS. September 11, 2015. Benin’s Prime Minister Lionel Zinsou paid a courtesy visit to African Development Bank Group President Akinwumi Adesina at the Bank’s headquarters in Abidjan, where they discussed existing partnerships and explored areas for future cooperation.

President Adesina commended the Benin Government’s efforts to consolidate the country’s macro-economic framework and the sustained growth achieved since 2011. He praised the Government’s energy programme, which seeks to provide electricity to about one million people in the next six months.

He said the Bank’s undertaking to provide US \\$700 million in support to Benin during the 2014-2018 period had begun to materialize through projects approved in 2014 such as the Parakou Urban Transport Project. An agriculture and a water project are also in the Bank’s pipeline for funding.

For his part, Prime Minister Zinsou congratulated President Adesina on his election noting that his country would provide him with the support he needs to accomplish his mission at the head of Africa’s premier development finance institution.   

In closing, President Adesina invited the Prime Minister to attend the high-level energy conference to be hosted by the Bank on September 17 and 18, 2015 in Abidjan ahead of the COP21 conference scheduled for Paris in December.