Titled Investment for Peace and Prosperity: Leveraging Libya’s Private Sector for Resilience and Inclusive Growth, the note identifies food security, connectivity, and economic diversification as priority areas where targeted investment can deliver early peace dividends. The analysis places particular emphasis on strategic connectivity investments as enablers of private sector recovery, domestic market integration, and wider regional linkages.
AfDB Director for the Transition States Coordination Office, Yero Baldeh, said Libya’s private sector has demonstrated resilience under sustained pressure, with the policy note intended to help authorities and partners channel investment toward sectors already sustaining livelihoods and trade across regions.
The note outlines practical actions, including the creation of a National Private Sector Development Coordination Platform, improved access to finance through a Credit Guarantee and Risk‑Sharing Facility for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), and support for entrepreneurship via a National MSME and Innovation Network linking incubators, chambers of commerce, universities, and business associations.
Recommendations are organised around three reinforcing pillars: strengthening institutional and data frameworks for private sector development; operationalising a public‑private partnership framework tailored to fragile environments; and empowering MSMEs through credit guarantees, digital financial services, alternative credit‑scoring models, and diaspora co‑investment instruments.
AfDB Country Manager for Libya and Deputy Director General for North Africa, Malinne Blomberg, said the analysis confirms the presence of economic opportunity, with the missing element being a credible framework to unlock it. Blomberg said the note positions the Bank to play a catalytic role at a moment of renewed institutional momentum.
The policy advances a peace‑positive investment framework aligned with the Bank Group strategy on fragility and resilience, arguing that MSMEs, informal trade networks, and cross‑regional supply chains already play stabilising roles that targeted investment can amplify.
The publication reflects AfDB’s deepening engagement in Libya and aligns with the Private Sector Development Strategy (2021–2025), setting out a phased engagement model linking analysis to pilot initiatives and scalable investment.
–AfDB/ChannelAfrica–
