Eligibility - African Development Fund

Eligibility and Country classification

ADF Eligibility

Depending on country classification, ADF currently provides loans, grants, and guarantees to 37 ADF eligible countries. Out of these 37 countries, 13 receive only grants; 19 receive concessional loans and grants and 5 are eligible for both ADF and ADB resources (blend).

Regional Member Countries are classified in four (4) groups:

		Creditworthiness to Sustain ADB / IBRD Financing
		No	Yes
Per capita income above the ADF / IDA operational cut-off for more than 2 consecutive years	No	(Category A) ADF-Only Countries Countries below cut-off and not creditworthy Only eligible for ADF resources	(Category B) Blend Countries Countries below cut-off and creditworthy Eligible for both ADF and ADB resources (ADF resources are subject to a cap and blend terms)
	Yes	(Category A) Gap Countries Countries above cut-off but not creditworthy Only eligible for ADF resources on blend terms	(Category C) ADB Countries Countries above cut-off and creditworthy Only eligible for ADB resources Exceptionally, Graduating Countries are eligible for ADF resources on blend terms during a 2 to 5-year phasing-out period

ADF-Only (Category A). Countries not deemed creditworthy for non-concessional financing and whose income is below the operational cut-off will have access only to ADF resources. Countries not deemed creditworthy for non-concessional financing but whose income is above the operational cut-off (gap countries) will have access only to ADF funds with modified financing terms, which are the same as those of blend countries. For ADF-15 period, gap countries that are at high risk of debt distress or in debt distress will receive 100% grants, while gap countries that are at low or moderate risk will continue to receive 100% loans.
Blend (Category B). Countries deemed creditworthy for non-concessional financing but whose income is below the operational cut-off will have access to a blend of ADB resources and ADF resources on modified financing terms (blend financing).
ADB (Category C). Countries deemed creditworthy for non-concessional financing and whose income is above the operational cut-off will have access only to ADB resources.

Specific Cases: Blend, Gap and Graduating Countries
Blend countries (Category B) can borrow from both the ADF and ADB. They are ADF-eligible on Blend countries the income criterion and at the same time creditworthy for limited ADB lending.

Gap countries cannot borrow from the ADB on account of their lack of (full) creditworthiness; hence they are eligible for ADF resources only.
Once an ADF-only country’s GNI per capita has been above the operational cut-off for more than two successive years, Management can classify this country as a gap country.

Graduating countries are those who are transitioning from ADF-only (Category A) or blend (Category B) to ADB-only status (Category C). They remain exceptionally eligible for ADF resources during their transition period as determined by the Transition Framework.

At the start of the ADF-15 cycle, Gap countries (Category A) are :

Djibouti, Ghana, Lesotho, and Sao Tome & Principe

Blend countries (Category B) are:

Cameroon, Kenya, Senegal, Zambia and Cote d’Ivoire.

While Senegal and Cote d’Ivoire graduated to blend status in 2018 and 2019 respectively, Cameroon and Zambia graduated to blend status since 2014, whereas Kenya graduated since 2016. Nigeria has fully graduated to the ADB window (category C) on January 1, 2019 after benefiting from a 5-year transition period, which started in 2014. Nigeria is no longer eligible for ADF resources.

Eligibility and Country classification

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