The African Development Bank has approved a USD 1.5 bn facility to help African countries avert a “looming food crisis,” the lender announced in a statement. AfDB will provide 20 mn African smallholder farmers with seeds and fertilizers to help them produce around 38 mn tons of food, it said. The continent is facing a shortage of at least 30 mn tons of food, including staples such as wheat, corn and soybeans which are usually imported from Russia and Ukraine. The lender did not specify which countries will be included in the plan. This came a couple of days after the World Bank announced it would deploy another USD 12 bn towards preventing a global food emergency, taking its total funding for food security projects over the next 15 months to USD 30 bn.

Expect an ECB rate hike in July, Lagarde says: The European Central Bank may raise interest rates in July to tackle inflation, despite rising concerns about an oncoming recession in the eurozone, bank chief Christine Lagarde said at the weekend. (Bloomberg)

THE CLOSING BELL-

The EGX30 rose 0.8% at Thursday’s close on turnover of EGP 693 mn (19.8% below the 90-day average). Regional investors were net buyers. The index is down 11.7% YTD.

In the green: CIB (+2.9%), Orascom Construction (+2.9%) and Egypt Kuwait Holding-EGP (+2.9%).

In the red: MM Group (-3.3%), GB Auto (-2.1%) and AMOC (-2.1%).