Africa's quest for financing to fund its development ambitions can be met by tapping local sources, improving the investment environment and offering investors policy certainty. These were among the recommendations proffered by speakers at a leaders' panel on the first day of African Trade and Investment Development Insurance's annual general meetings held in Nairobi, Kenya from 30 June to 3 July 2026.
Opening the discussions, Sidi Ould Tah, president of the African Development Bank, made the case for the bank's New African Financial Architecture for Development, which he said would strengthen coordination among Africa's financial institutions and reduce dependence on external sources for development.
"The New African Financial Architecture for Development is meant to respond to a dire need among African countries and to fight fragmentation" Tah explained. "We have in Africa the largest number of financial institutions and development financial institutions in the world, yet the consolidated balance sheet of those institutions represents only 1% of the development financial institutions in the world. That shows the level of fragmentation we have and the low level of capitalisation we have in our financial institutions," he added.
Rather than waiting on international reforms, Tah said NAFAD would organise African financial institutions across continental, regional and national levels while bringing together development finance institutions, commercial banks, guarantee agencies, insurers, private equity funds, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and capital markets under a common framework. "What we lack on the continent is not resources. We are sitting on trillions of savings across the continent, but these trillions cannot be channelled to finance our development unless we have the confidence that ATIDI can provide us," he said.
Originally published by African Business.