16 DE JULHO DE 1983

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international capital through such an institution for the economic development and social progress of the region, and the mutual benefit of all parties to this Agreement;

Have agreed to establish hereby the African Development Bank (hereinafter called the «Bank») which shall be governed by the following provisions:

CHAPTER 1 Purpose, functions, membership and structure

Article 1 Purpose

The purpose of the Bank shall be to contribute to the economic development and social progress of its regional members, individually and jointly.

Article 2 Functions

1 — To implement its purpose, the Bank shall have the following functions:

a) To use the resources at its disposal for the

financing of investment projects and programmes relating to the economic and social development of its regional members, giving special priority to:

i) Projects or programmes which by their nature or scope concern several members; and

if) Projects or programmes designed to make the economies of its members increasingly complementary and to bring about an orderly expansion of their foreign trade;

b) To undertake, or participate in, the selection,

study and preparation of projects, enterprises and activities contributing to such development;

c) To mobilize and increase in Africa, and out-

side Africa, resources for the financing of such investment projects and programmes;

d) Generally, to promote investment in Africa

of public and private capital in projects or programmes designed to contribute to the economic development or social progress of its regional members;

e) To provide such technical assistance as may

be needed in Africa for the study, preparation, financing and execution of development projects or programmes; and

f) To undertake such other activities and provide

such other services as may advance its purpose.

2 — In carrying out its functions, the Bank shall seek to co-operate with national, regional and sub-regional

development institutions in Africa. To the same end, it should co-operate with other international organizations pursuing a similar purpose and with other institutions concerned with the development of Africa.

3 — The Bank shall be guided in all its decisions by the provisions, of articles 1 and 2 of this Agreement.

Article 3 Membership and geographical area

1 — Any African country which has the status of an independent State may become a regional member of the Bank. It shall acquire membership in accordance with paragraph 1 or paragraph 2 of article 64 of this Agreement.

2 — The geographical area to which the regional membership and development activities of the Bank may extend (referred to in this Agreement as «Africa» or «African», as the case may be) shall comprise the continent of Africa and African islands.

3 — Nonregional countries which are, or become, members of the African Development Fund, or which have made, or are making, contributions to the African Development Fund under terms and conditions similar to the terms and conditions of the Agreement Establishing the African Development Fund, may also be admitted to the Bank, at such times and under such general rules as the Board of Governors shall have established. Such general rules may be amended only by decision of the Board of Governors by a two-thirds majority of the total number of governors, including two-thirds of the governors of nonregional members, representing not less than three-fourths of the total voting power of the member countries.

Article 4 Structure

The Bank shall have a Board of Governors, a Board of Directors, a President, at least one Vice-President and such other officers and staff to perform such duties as the Bank may determine.

CHAPTER II Capital Article 5 Authorized capital

1:

a) The authorized capital stock of the Bank shall

be 250,000,000 units of account. It shall be divided into 25,000 shares of a par value of 10,000 units of account each share, which shall be available for subscription by members;

b) The value of the unit of account shall be

0.88867088 g of fine gold.