ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast, April 20/APO Group: The African Development Bank Group has finalised what is termed a landmark Consultative Dialogue on a New African Financial Architecture for Development (NAFAD, formerly NAFA), chartering a bold roadmap to address Africa’s development financing gap.
The day-long dialogue held on April 9 culminated in the adoption of an 11-point “Abidjan Consensus” on NAFAD. NAFAD is designed to overcome the structural obstacles to help mobilise resources on a large-scale, to plug Africa’s USD 400 billion annual development finance gap.
Among the commitments made by participants was a resolution to unlock Africa’s vast domestic savings and channel them into productive investment on the continent. They also pledged continuous coordination and annual reviews to ensure sustained momentum and track progress.
The New African Financial Architecture for Development forms a core part of Bank Group President Dr Sidi Ould Tah’s Four Cardinal Points strategic vision.
The Consultative Dialogue, which took place in the Ivorian commercial capital, Abidjan, involved nine “Labs,” in which a broad spectrum of Africa’s top financial sector stakeholders brainstormed to produce concrete instruments, platforms, and frameworks towards building a new financial architecture for the continent.
The Dialogue was held under the patronage of the President of the Ivory Coast, Alassane Ouattara, who was represented at the opening ceremony by the nation’s Prime Minister, Mr. Robert Beugré Mambé.
“The conference bringing us together presents a real opportunity to deepen our collective reflection on the reforms needed to build an international financial system that is fairer and better suited to the realities of the contemporary world,” Prime Minister Mambé said on behalf of President Ouattara.
As Dr Ould Tah put it during the opening ceremony, “The current architecture of financing Africa’s development is inadequate and not fit for purpose,” he said. “The truth is that we do not suffer from a lack of capital: Africa has approximately USD4 trillion in medium- and long-term savings.”
NAFAD proposes a systemic framework aimed at reorganising how capital and risk are deployed across the African financial ecosystem. It will focus on building a permanent implementation architecture, capital mobilisation, and deployment.
“The transition from NAFA to NAFAD is not merely a semantic shift; above all, it expresses your genuine determination to overcome the structural obstacles to the large-scale mobilisation of resources to finance Africa’s development,” Dr Ould Tah said in closing remarks.
The Dialogue drew participants from a cross-section of financial sectors, such as African central bank governors, senior executives from sovereign wealth funds, regional commercial banks, national development banks, securities exchanges, private equity, and development finance institutions.
“You have enabled us to achieve results far exceeding initial expectations. This is an historic moment: the Abidjan Consensus, welcomed with immense enthusiasm, redefines the future of financing on our continent,” Dr Ould Tah said.
“By cementing the unity of the African financial ecosystem on the shores of the Ébrié Lagoon, this agreement provides NAFAD with the legitimacy and grounding necessary to uphold the ambitions of our ‘Four Cardinal Points.”
