Multinational - Africa Project Development Facility (APDF) 2000

Africa Project Development Facility (APDF) was set up in 1986 as a joint initiative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC). APDF was established to respond to the need for project preparation and assistance to African entrepreneurs. The Facility’s mandate is to work with entrepreneurs throughout the project preparations cycle until the project has secured the necessary funding. The three sponsoring agencies, together with 15 donor countries have provided funding to APDF for the first three cycles which ended on 30 June 2000. During 14 years of its existence, APDF has prepared over 400 such business plans; and this has been an important contribution to the development of African entrepreneurs and to the establishment of a viable and successful local private sector. The work of APDF is now well-recognized as important for the development of the SME sector. The continued support of APDF by donors, including ADB is not only an affirmation of the good work accomplished by the Facility but also their commitment to promoting SMEs and entrepreneurship development. The advent of APDF 2000 represents an opportunity to challenge the Facility to build on its past successes and explore additional ways of improving its effectiveness, efficiency and increasing the number of SMEs it impacts. The total gross cost for APDF 2000’s five-year period is projected to be $65 million.