The African Development Bank Group has approved a new $5.1 billion framework to mitigate the impact of the global energy and fertiliser crisis in Nigeria and other African countries.

The Global Energy and Fertiliser Crisis Response Framework (GEFCRF), approved on September 1, 2026, is designed to provide timely and targeted support to address immediate needs arising from the crisis while strengthening African economies against future shocks.

Building on the Bank’s experience with its COVID-19 Response Facility and African Emergency Food Production Facility, the framework is expected to provide immediate relief while laying the foundation for stronger, more self-reliant and resilient African economies.

The framework will be financed through an additional $4.1 billion in AfDB lending and up to $960 million from the African Development Fund, the Bank Group’s concessional lending arm.

The additional resources will increase the Bank’s 2026 lending target to approximately $12.7 billion, enabling it to provide targeted support to countries affected by the crisis while strengthening their resilience to future shocks.

The Bank said the response was temporary and would remain valid for one year from the Board’s approval date, after which it would be reviewed before any extension.

The GEFCRF will be demand-driven, with support tailored to the specific vulnerability levels of individual countries and matched with appropriate financial and policy responses.

The Bank said the ongoing crisis in the Middle East continued to pose a significant external shock to African economies, reflected in rising global prices for energy, food, fertilisers and other commodities on which many African countries remain heavily dependent and for which they rely substantially on imports.

One of the pillars of the framework is protecting essential spending and vulnerable households by safeguarding priority public expenditures and deploying targeted social protection for vulnerable groups, particularly women and young people.

It also seeks to reduce reliance on broad subsidies and prevent a deepening of fragility.

Another pillar focuses on sustaining reforms for medium- to long-term resilience by preserving policy space for reforms that reduce dependence on volatile external energy, food and fertiliser markets, establish diversified supply chains and regional solutions, and enhance fiscal resilience and crisis-response readiness.

Officer in Charge, Vice President for Agriculture, Human and Social Development at the AfDB, Martin Fregene, said the framework provided a mechanism to respond to pressures facing African farmers as the Middle East conflict disrupts global trade.

“When fertiliser becomes too expensive or difficult to find, farmers use less and harvests suffer,” he said, adding that access to finance and support for businesses to keep fertiliser moving to farmers were part of the solution while stronger fertiliser markets and more local supply were developed.