African Union secures US$ 380 million from Pledging Conference

With Africa pledging over US$ 346 million, the African Union (AU) Thursday secured over US$ 380 million from internal and external sources in response to its appeal to help over 14 million drought-hit people in the Horn of Africa, according to AU officials. African countries and institutions made a pledge of over US$ 346.5 million at the first-ever AU pledging conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The largest donation of US$ 300 million from within Africa came from the African Development Bank (AfDB), which announced that the amount would be disbursed over five years.

“A total of US$ 351.7 million, including AfDB’s contributions, have been contributed in cash while US$ 28.8 million has been pledged in kind,” Jean Ping, the AU Commission Chairperson, announced. “When we set out for the first ever initiative to respond to hunger in our continent, our expectations were modest.”

Only four countries – Ethiopia, Somalia and Djibouti, as well as Equatorial Guinea – were represented by their head of states although the conference was put forward by about two weeks to ensure a big turnout.

The AU put on the Pledging Conference in an effort to start homemade responses to African problems by mobilizing funds from African governments as well as private and state institutions.

Throughout August, the continental body has been trying to sensitize the population of the continent to generously contribute.

An 11-year-old boy from Ghana, Andrew Adansi-Bonnah, who has mobilized donations from individuals and organizations in his country, brought in US$ 4,000 cash, double the amount pledged by Lesotho.

Algeria and South Africa top the list of African countries with pledges of over US$ 10 million each, while the much-expected regional heavy weight - Nigeria - contributed US$ 2 million and Ghana pledged US$ 500,000.

The newest nation on earth, South Sudan, pledged US$ 1 million, while its northern neighbours, Sudan, said food and medical assistance, worth over US$ 3 million, were en-route mainly to Somalia.

Further north, Egypt pledged 30 million Egyptian pounds (about US$ 6 million) in kind.

Angola gave US$ 5 million while Equatorial Guinea which has formed a commission to mobilize funds secured US$ 300,000 in addition to the US$ 2.5 million its president announced earlier Thursday morning.