Nicosia: The World Bank Group has announced its partnership with the African Development Bank Group and Mastercard as a co-chair in the Mobilizing Access to the Digital Economy (MADE) Alliance: Africa. This initiative seeks to provide digital access to essential services for 100 million individuals and businesses across the continent by 2034, harmonizing efforts to deliver vital digital services.
According to World Bank, the MADE Alliance aligns with its commitment to accelerate digitalization by expanding access to secure, affordable, and high-quality broadband and data connectivity. The World Bank Group plans to contribute its expertise, data-driven insights, and experience in supporting sustainable digital transformation to the alliance. This collaboration focuses on ensuring seamless integration of digital services to benefit users across Africa.
The MADE Alliance is particularly targeting the agriculture sector, recognizing digital technologies as powerful catalysts for development. World Bank-supported Digital Agriculture Roadmaps will facilitate the creation of tailored country action plans, enabling the MADE Alliance to impact more farmers effectively. Currently, the alliance is executing projects aimed at various agricultural improvements, including supporting 50,000 sunflower farmers in Tanzania with payment tools and deploying high-speed internet and digital skills training in Kenya.
Tara Nathan, Founder and Executive Vice President of Community Pass at Mastercard, emphasized the alliance’s mission to bring complementary partners together to amplify their impact. She highlighted the World Bank’s formidable expertise in digital transformation and agriculture, expressing gratitude for its participation in the alliance to efficiently deploy resources and accelerate work toward inclusive digital economy integration.
Since its launch in May 2024, the MADE Alliance has made significant strides with ongoing projects. In Kenya, it is enhancing the bankability of 250,000 farmers through funding from the African Development Bank Group and has reached approximately 10,000 farmers and their communities with digital skills training. Additionally, the Kenya National Farmers Federation is receiving support to improve farmers’ access to financial institutions.
In April 2025, the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development joined the alliance, further expanding its network of members, which includes Equity Bank Group, Microsoft, Heifer International, Sustainable Agriculture Foundation, Unconnected.org, Yara, Kenya National Farmers Federation, Shell Foundation, CRDB Bank, and Syngenta Foundation in Kenya and Nigeria.