African Development Bank Chief Financial Economist Edson Mpyisi discuses the locust crisis and the Bank’s work to help, with the African Bank Development Group.
A new wave of billions of locusts is set to devour crops across the East and Horn of Africa region, setting off concerns about regional food security and livelihoods of millions of farmers.
He explained that the bank contributed $1.5 million in grants in response to a request from the Intergovernmental Authority on Development.
Some affected countries are considering re-allocating resource from other African Development Bank projects toward locust response. For example, Kenya has requested to re-allocate about $5 million committed to other Bank-funded projects to address the locust emergency.
