African Development Bank - New York

Beautiful engraved SCARCE specimen certificate from the African Development Bank printed in 1988. This historic document was printed by United States Banknote Company and has an ornate border around it with a vignette of workers in Africa. This item has the printed signatures of the Company's President and Secretary.




Certificate Vignette

The African Development Bank (ADB) is a development bank established in 1964 with the intention of States dollar $47.5 billion. It concluded 2003 with a AAA rating from major financial agencies and with a capital of $32.043 billion. Moreover, it has placed an emphasis over the years on the role of women, education and structural reforms, and lent its support to key initiatives such as debt alleviation for Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC's) and the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD). It currently has 77 members: 53 countries in Africa and 24 American, European, and Asian countries.

In 1961, the Monrovian Conference took place in Monrovia, Liberia. Two draft charters were at the centre of discussion: the OAU (now the African Union) and the African Development Bank. A committee chaired by A. Romeo Horton (at the time President of the Central Bank of Liberia) visited with many African presidents as well as with Western leaders to present the idea of the African Development Bank. Amother key figure in this step in the development of the ADB was Mamoun Beheiry, at the time Governor of the Central Bank of Sudan and later the first President of the African Development Bank.

Although established officially in 1964 under the auspices of the Economic Commission for Africa, the ADB began operation in 1966 with its headquarters in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire. With the statute of a regional multilateral development bank, the African Development Bank engaged in promoting the economic development and social progress of its Regional Member Countries (RMCs) in Africa.

In 2005, the amount of approved loans by ADB totalled 2.29 billions of UA - note indeed that ADB financial statements are expressed in UA, or Units of Account, whose value is defined as about 0.8887 grams of fine gold. As of 2001, 1 UA equals approximately US$ 1.28.

The ADB has four principal functions. The first is to make loans and equity investments for the economic and social advancement of the RMCs. Second, it is to provide technical assistance for the preparation and execution of development projects and programs. Third, the ADB is to promote investment of public and private capital for development purposes. Lastly, the ADB is to assist in coordinating development policies and plans of RMCs. The ADB is also required to give special attention to national and multinational projects and programs which promote regional integration.

The African Development Bank Group has two other entities: the African Development Fund (ADF) and the Nigeria Trust Fund (NTF).

Established in 1972, the African Development Fund started operations in 1974 It provides development finance on concessional terms to low-income RMCs which are unable to borrow on the non-concessional terms of the ADB. In harmony with its lending strategy, poverty reduction is the main aim of ADF activities. Twenty-four non-African countries along with the ADB constitute its current membership. The ADF’s general operations are decided by a Board of Directors, six of which are appointed by the non-African member states and six designated by the ADB from among the bank's regional Executive Directors.

The ADF’s sources are mainly contributions and periodic replacements by non-African member states. The fund is usually replenished every three years, unless member states decide otherwise. The total donations, at the end of 1996, amounted to $12.58 billion. The ADF lends at no interest rate, with a service charge of 0.75% per annum, a commitment fee of 0.5%, and a 50-year repayment period including a 10-year grace period. The Tenth United Kingdom replenishment of the ADF was in 2006.

Concerning the Nigeria Trust Fund, the NTF was established in 1976 by the Nigerian Government with an initial capital of $80 million. The NTF function is to assist in the development efforts of the poorest ADB members.

The NTF uses its resources to provide financing for projects of national or regional importance which further the economic and social development of the low-income RMCs whose economic and social conditions require financing on non-conventional terms. In 1996, the NTF had a total resource base of $432 million. It lends at a 4% interest rate with a 25-year repayment period, including a five year grace period.

History from Wikipeida and OldCompanyResearch.com.

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About Specimens

Specimen Certificates are actual certificates that have never been issued. They were usually kept by the printers in their permanent archives as their only example of a particular certificate. Sometimes you will see a hand stamp on the certificate that says "Do not remove from file".

Specimens were also used to show prospective clients different types of certificate designs that were available. Specimen certificates are usually much scarcer than issued certificates. In fact, many times they are the only way to get a certificate for a particular company because the issued certificates were redeemed and destroyed. In a few instances, Specimen certificates we made for a company but were never used because a different design was chosen by the company.

These certificates are normally stamped "Specimen" or they have small holes spelling the word specimen. Most of the time they don't have a serial number, or they have a serial number of 00000. This is an exciting sector of the hobby that grown in popularity over the past several years.