NAIROBI - African financial leaders have taken up the push for a re-engineering of the global financial architecture, seeking a model that works for the continent.
At the 2023 General Shareholders Meeting of Africa50 and Infra for Africa Forum in Lome, Togo, on July 3, the issue took centre stage, led by African Development Bank (AfDB) president Akinwumi Adesina.
“It is failing the world,” Dr Adesina said, “it is not able to mobilise the capital that the world needs to meet all of its development needs.” “It is also failing developing countries because you can see that even after Covid, Africa still needs about $250 billion to recover.
We need $277 billion a year to deal with climate change, plus you still have to deal with Africa's debt: today countries have to pay a lot in terms of repayment and service of debt.” Dr Adesina said the first thing that needs to change is for the global financial architecture to scale up its level of ambition, “because we have to attain the sustainable development goals and we must make sure that globally we are able to do that.”
Africa will need $277 billion annually through 2030 to achieve its climate financing targets and drive green growth, as per the continent’s nationally determined contributions.
