ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, February 25, 2026/APO Group: The African Heads of State and Government on February 14, 2026, formally launched the Africa Infrastructure Financing Facility (AIFF), a coordinated, Africa-led platform designed to accelerate the preparation and facilitation of financing for priority cross-border infrastructure projects aligned with Agenda 2063.
The launch took place during the Third Presidential High-Level Dialogue of the Alliance of African Multilateral Financial Institutions (AAMFI), convened on the margins of the 39th African Union Summit under the theme: “Strengthening Africa’s Financial Architecture to Finance Agenda 2063.”
Held under the patronage of the President of Ghana, H.E. John Dramani Mahama, and the African Union Champion on AU Financial Institutions, the Dialogue reinforced Africa’s commitment to translating financial sovereignty into operational mechanisms capable of mobilizing long-term capital at scale.
Agenda 2063 continues to face financing constraints driven by fragmented capital markets, elevated cost-of-capital premiums, limited long-term funding, and persistent reliance on external financial systems that do not fully reflect Africa’s development realities.
Set against this backdrop, African leaders emphasized the need to strengthen existing African Multilateral Financial Institutions (AMFIs) while accelerating the operationalization of African Union Financial Institutions.
“Africa has domestic capital pools exceeding USD 2.5 trillion,” President Mahama stated. “The challenge is not the availability of capital, but how intentionally we deploy it into infrastructure, industrialization, and job creation to realize Agenda 2063 and the African Continental Free Trade Area.”
He underscored the importance of reducing dependency on fragmented financing systems that misprice Africa’s risk and called for a coherent continental financial architecture capable of financing Africa’s development sustainably.
Representing the African Union Commission, H.E. Mrs. Francisca Tatchouop Belobe, Commissioner for Economic Development, Trade, Tourism, Industry and Minerals, has reaffirmed the AU’s commitment to strengthening continental financial coordination:
“The launch of the AIFF is a powerful demonstration of what can be achieved when political will and institutional coordination converge. We are confident that this Facility will contribute meaningfully to closing Africa’s infrastructure financing gap, estimated at approximately USD221 billion annually over the period 2023 to 2030.”
President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Afreximbank, Dr. George Elombi, has stressed the facility: “The Africa Infrastructure Financing Facility has been designed to address the most persistent constraint to infrastructure delivery in Africa: the gap between political approval and financial execution. Too many projects stall not because they lack relevance, but because they are insufficiently prepared, inadequately structured, or misaligned with the requirements of long-term capital. African Multilateral Financial Institutions understand African risk, African markets, and African development realities. By pooling expertise, balance sheets, and risk frameworks, the Facility moves Africa from fragmented interventions to a coherent system capable of mobilising capital at scale.”
A central highlight of the Dialogue was the formal launch of the Africa Infrastructure Financing Facility (AIFF). Established under a Cooperation Framework Agreement between AUDA-NEPAD and AAMFI, the AIFF provides a structured, Africa-led coordination mechanism to accelerate project preparation and facilitate indicative, non-binding engagement on financing for priority infrastructure aligned with Agenda 2063.
