Japan, AfDB To Support Africa’s Private Sector With $5bn(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – The government of Japan and the African Development Bank (AfDB) have pledged $5 billion support package for Africa’s private sector. This is coming as part of the financial cooperation under the fifth phase of the Enhanced Private Sector Assistance for Africa initiative (EPSA) from 2023 to 2025. Currently, Japan is providing its support through EPSA4 (3.5 billion US dollars over 2020 to 2022), which was launched at TICAD7 in 2019. Given the importance of food security, Japan and the AfDB will add agriculture and nutrition as a priority area under EPSA 5. Japan and the AfDB will join forces to support countries that address enormous challenges, including food security, climate change, health, digitalization, and debt issues.