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Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced that the public and private sectors in Japan will mobilise around $30 billion in funding for the African continent over the next three years, notably through promoting green growth.

He was speaking remotely at the opening of the Eighth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD8), which is being held on August 27 and 28 in Tunis.

Kishida recalled that the private sector financing pledge for Africa, estimated at 20 billion Yen, which was announced during TICAD 7, has almost been honoured over the past three years.

"A package of about $4 billion will be mobilised to support investment in the public and private sectors under the Green Growth Initiative," he noted, adding that Japan and the African Development Bank (AfDB) will make a $5 billion credit line available to African and Japanese start-ups to boost investment and entrepreneurship.

"This package will include the exceptional quota of $1 billion that Japan will earmark to support countries undertaking reform programmes to ensure the proper management of loans."

The PM also announced that Japan will offer $l.8 billion over the next three years, "out of conviction of the imperative to contribute to supporting programmes to combat AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria and to strengthen health systems, particularly in Africa."

He also announced his country's willingness to provide training courses for 300,000 people by 2025, as part of its contribution to develop human resources in Africa, noting that Japan has so far trained about 4,000 young Africans.

He also mentioned lowering the warning level for Japanese citizens wishing to travel to a number of African countries, where the epidemiological situation has stabilised.

On another note, Kishida said Japan will work on developing the Indian and Pacific Ocean region, and cooperation with Africa, as well as strengthening the United Nations missions for a world without nuclear weapons.

On the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the PM noted that this war has hampered the export of grain from Ukraine to Africa, stressing that Japan will do its utmost to resolve this issue as a partner country of Africa.

He announced Japan's decision to grant food aid worth about $130 million to African countries, besides providing $300 million to further support food production and train 200,000 people in the agricultural sector, through joint programmes with the AfDB.