The African Development Bank’s governors have endorsed President Sidi Ould Tah’s reform agenda and urged faster overhaul of Africa’s financial architecture, as the Bank’s 2026 Annual Meetings closed in Brazzaville.
The five-day gathering, the 61st of its kind and the first under Ould Tah since he took office in September 2025, ended on Friday, May 29, at the Kintele Conference Centre. It drew more than 4,000 participants from over 81 countries under the theme of mobilising Africa’s development financing at scale in a fragmented world.
The Board of Governors backed Ould Tah’s mandate to implement his Four Cardinal Points strategy and to accelerate reforms under the New African Financial Architecture for Development (NAFAD), aimed at marshalling large-scale resources for the continent. Ludovic Ngatsé, the Congolese economy minister who chairs the governors, said the meetings had aligned national priorities with continental ambitions, while Ould Tah reaffirmed his goal of building a more agile African Development Bank (AfDB) that stays close to the field.
The meetings produced several commitments. Angola pledged 6.5 million euros to the 17th replenishment of the African Development Fund (ADF), lifting the number of African contributors to 25 and the total beyond 190 million dollars. More than 3 billion dollars was raised for the Congo Basin Blue Fund, and Japan committed 10 million dollars to the African Facility for Medicines and Medical Equipment (AMEF).
A standout moment came on Africa Day, when Congolese President Denis Sassou-Nguesso announced that all African nationals would enjoy visa-free entry to Congo from January 1, 2027. Ould Tah welcomed it as “a courageous and deeply pan-African decision.”
The event proceeded in person despite an Ebola outbreak declared in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda in mid May, with health authorities reporting no case in the Republic of the Congo.
