The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) has urged capital market players to help bridge the financing gap for the continent's development needs.
- •At an inaugural session at the AfDB headquarters in Abidjan, the continental lender gathered African development finance institutions and private sector financial players to forge a blueprint for a New African Financial Architecture.
- •The AfDB plans to support regulatory authorities, stock exchanges and intermediaries; and diversify savings mobilisations and market participants to promote product liquidity and deeper markets.
- •Among the exchanges represented included the African Exchange Linkage Project (AELP), Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE), Tunis Stock Exchange, West African Regional Stock Exchange (BRVM), the Central African Stock Exchange, Casablanca Stock Exchange and the Ghana Stock Exchange.
“The capital markets are the bedrock upon which long-term, sustainable economic growth is built. By mobilizing patient capital, you provide our sovereigns and businesses with diversified funding sources, while offering investors, particularly institutional investors, a broader array of opportunities,” AfDB President Dr Ould Tah said.
The promotion of sustainable finance, the digitalisation of markets, attracting investment capital to Africa’s markets, and programmes tailored to SMEs were among the issues discussed during the meeting.
Donald Waweru Wangunyu, Non-Executive Director, NSE, pushed for regional coordination in order to achieve "scaling up, policy coordination and implementation of reforms; we have good projects, but the obstacles are still there, " he said.
A key objective of the consultations this week is to enable financial flows for private equity and venture capital by reinforcing existing African investment funds and expanding their capacity to finance small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), mid-market companies, and emerging industrial champions.
