The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank’s (AIIB) Board of Governors has approved Mauritania’s application, raising the Bank’s approved membership to 106. Mauritania is now AIIB’s 55th nonregional member, 21 of which are from Africa.

Prospective members, including Mauritania, will officially join AIIB once they complete the required membership procedures and deposit their first capital installment with the Bank. The shares allocated to the new prospective members come from the Bank’s existing pool of unallocated shares.

To date, AIIB has approved eight projects in Africa amounting to USD1.58 billion, with the recent approval of a EUR250-million loan to a green public transportation project in Egypt. In 2023, the Eighth Annual Meeting of the AIIB Board of Governors will be hosted by Egypt—the Bank’s first Annual Meeting in the African continent.