Japan is set to promise some $30 billion in aid for African development at a conference to be held in Tunisia this weekend, the Japanese Sankei Shimbun daily reported on Friday.
The aid will be announced at the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and will be aimed at developing human resources in order to promote economic growth. Prime Minister Kishida will be taking part in the conference online since he is recovering from COVID-19, the paper added.
The government did not immediately respond to the report. Other topics of discussion will include Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the impact it has had on food supply in Africa, as well as climate change and promotion of environmentally friendly business, said a Japanese official from the Foreign Ministry.
The eighth TICAD is the first since 2019 and only the second one to be held in Africa. It is being co-hosted with the United Nations, the World Bank and the African Union Commission. Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi will be attending the conference and is set to meet with his Tunisian counterpart on Friday, ahead of the main conference.
