African state joins BRICS bank

Algeria has been granted membership in the BRICS New Development Bank (NDB), the institution’s president, Dilma Rousseff, and the North African nation’s Finance Ministry have announced.

The decision was made on Saturday at the ninth annual meeting of the Board of Governors of the NDB in Cape Town, South Africa, the Algerian Finance Ministry said in a statement posted on Facebook.

“Algeria joining this important development institution, which is considered the financial arm of the BRICS, is a major step in the path of integration into the global financial system,” the ministry stated.

The NDB was established in 2015 by the BRICS group of developing countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa – with the goal of mobilizing resources for infrastructure and sustainable development projects in the bloc and other emerging markets. The multilateral development bank admitted Bangladesh, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and Uruguay as new members in 2021 as part of an expansion move.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the Cape Town summit over the weekend, Rousseff stated that the NDB has “a process to authorize new members to the bank… Algeria was authorized to become a member of the bank.” 

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Algiers’ Finance Ministry said on Sunday the country’s admission to the BRICS NDB had been made possible due to the former French colony’s recent “outstanding economic performance.” 

“Algeria joining the New Development Bank opens new horizons to support and promote the country’s medium and long-term economic growth,” it stated.

Algeria, one of Russia’s long-standing African partners, has been working to diversify its economy.

The oil-rich African country is among several that had formally applied to join BRICS, former South African Foreign Affairs Minister Naledi Pandor said last summer. In January, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE became members of the group.

Algiers has also applied to become a dialogue partner of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which consists of China, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, Iran, India, and Pakistan, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced in May. Currently, 14 countries, with Egypt being the only African state, hold SCO dialogue partner status, allowing them to participate in the organization’s specialized events at the invitation of its members.