{"id":31512,"date":"2026-04-11T09:47:37","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T07:47:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&p=31512"},"modified":"2026-04-11T10:26:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T08:26:16","slug":"afdb-forges-abidjan-consensus-to-close-africas-400-billion-development-finance-gap","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/afdb-forges-abidjan-consensus-to-close-africas-400-billion-development-finance-gap\/","title":{"rendered":"AfDB forges Abidjan Consensus to close Africa\u2019s $400 billion development finance gap"},"content":{"rendered":"
The day\u2011long meeting, held on April 9 in Abidjan, resulted in the adoption of an 11\u2011point \u201cAbidjan Consensus\u201d, committing African financial leaders to unlock domestic capital, strengthen coordination and establish a permanent implementation framework to mobilise long\u2011term financing for development.<\/div>\n
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NAFAD, previously known as NAFA, is a central pillar of African Development Bank Group President Dr Sidi Ould Tah\u2019s Four Cardinal Points strategy. It seeks to address structural bottlenecks that have prevented Africa from mobilising its own resources at scale.<\/div>\n
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\u201cOur current financing architecture is not fit for purpose,\u201d Ould Tah said. \u201cAfrica does not suffer from a lack of capital. The continent holds nearly $4 trillion in medium\u2011 and long\u2011term savings. The challenge is mobilisation and deployment.\u201d<\/div>\n
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Participants committed to channelling Africa\u2019s vast domestic savings into productive investment and agreed to annual reviews to ensure momentum and accountability. The dialogue featured nine thematic \u201clabs\u201d bringing together central bank governors, heads of sovereign wealth funds, development banks, private equity firms, securities exchanges and other financial institutions.<\/div>\n
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The dialogue was held under the patronage of President Alassane Ouattara of C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire and opened by Prime Minister Robert Beugr\u00e9 Mamb\u00e9. He said the initiative provides an opportunity to reshape the global financial system to better reflect contemporary realities. \u201cThe reforms we discuss today are essential to building a fairer and more responsive international financial system,\u201d Mamb\u00e9 said.<\/div>\n
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Guinea\u2011Bissau Economist Professor Carlos Lopes told the opening session that financing remains the principal constraint to achieving the African Union\u2019s Agenda 2063. \u201cConcessional finance has its limits. It was never designed to deliver transformation at scale,\u201d he said.<\/div>\n
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The Abidjan Consensus, presented by C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire\u2019s Minister for Planning and Development Souleymane Diarrassouba, establishes NAFAD as a systemic platform to reorganise how capital and risk are deployed across Africa\u2019s financial ecosystem.<\/div>\n
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Ould Tah described the agreement as historic. \u201cThis consensus unifies Africa\u2019s financial ecosystem and gives NAFAD the legitimacy required to deliver lasting impact,\u201d he said.<\/div>\n
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–AfDB\/ChannelAfrica–<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":31513,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[78,44],"class_list":["post-31512","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) has concluded a landmark consultative dialogue on a New African Financial Architecture for Development (NAFAD), adopting a bold roadmap aimed at closing Africa\u2019s estimated $400 billion annual development financing gap.","published_date":"","news_description":"The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) has concluded a landmark consultative dialogue on a New African Financial Architecture for Development (NAFAD), adopting a bold roadmap aimed at closing Africa\u2019s estimated $400 billion annual development financing gap.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/31512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/31512\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31514,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/31512\/revisions\/31514"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=31512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}