Africa must channel its vast domestic savings into productive investment and cut reliance on external financing to achieve economic transformation, African Development Bank (AfDB) President Sidi Ould Tah has said.
Tah, a Mauritanian economist who became the Bank’s ninth president in September 2025, told heads of state, ministers, and investors that the continent’s ambitions have outgrown the financial systems meant to support them. He spoke at the opening of the AfDB’s annual meetings in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, on 26 May.
He put Africa’s annual financing need for structural transformation at more than $400 billion, even as the continent holds over $4 trillion in domestic savings and financial assets. The challenge, he argued, is not a shortage of resources but the failure to put them to work. He called for stronger African financial institutions able to mobilise local savings, lower investment risk, and attract long term capital.
Tah said Africa’s economic weight remains small relative to its size, accounting for about 18% of the world’s population but only roughly 3% of global trade and between 3% and 4% of global output. “Africa cannot continue to export raw materials and import prosperity,” he said, pressing for greater industrialisation and value addition.
He outlined a new strategic direction for the Bank built around cheaper capital, stronger financial systems, opportunities for young people and women, and support for industrialisation. The plan anchors his flagship New African Financial Architecture for Development (NAFAD), which African Union leaders have endorsed.
Tah also pointed to a record $11 billion replenishment of the African Development Fund (ADF), the Bank’s concessional arm, as a sign of confidence in the continent’s prospects. For the first time, 24 African countries contributed, together providing about $183 million, in what he called a shift toward Africa co-investing in its own future.
The meetings, hosted by the Republic of Congo and drawing more than 3,000 delegates, ran from 25 to 29 May under the theme of mobilising development finance at scale in a fragmented world.
