Africa’s development must be shaped by African ambition, institutions and leadership – AfDB Presdient
The President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr Sidi Ould Tah has said that Africa’s development must increasingly be shaped by African ambition, African institutions and African leadership.
Speaking at the opening of the 2026 Annual Meetings of the AfDB in the Congolese capital, Brazzaville, Dr Ould Tah told the story of how the Bank stood by and supported Africa for more than 60 years.
“For more than sixty years, this Bank has stood by the continent through its moments of hope, its periods of turbulence, its profound transformations and its waves of renewal. It has helped to build roads and electricity grids, supported farmers and entrepreneurs, built capacity and connected economies,” he said.
But perhaps even more importantly, it has helped to foster a conviction: that Africa’s development must increasingly be shaped by African ambition, African institutions and African leadership, he stated.
Dr Ould Tah said after speaking to and listening to different groups, experts, including leaders, innovators both young and old, and reflecting on their different perspectives and priorities; “one message kept coming up: Africa’s ambitions have now outstripped the financial architecture available to support them,” he said.
He noted that it is not because Africa lacks ideas or vision, and neither is it because it lacks resilience.
“But because the gravity of the moment now demands institutions capable of moving faster, mobilising more capital, building stronger partnerships and rethinking development finance,” he said.
Dr Ould Tah argued that today’s Africa is defined by three major paradoxes.
He said the first is the paradox of size without commensurate economic influence.
“Africa accounts for around 18 per cent of the world’s population. It holds over 30 percent of the world’s mineral resources and over 60 percent of the world’s unexploited arable land. And yet, Africa accounts for only around three percent of global trade and between three and four per cent of global GDP,” he said.
The second, he said, is the paradox of financing.
“The continent faces an estimated annual financing requirement of over $400 billion to ensure its structural transformation. Yet Africa also has over $4 trillion in domestic savings and assets — held in banks, pension funds, insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds and other financial institutions,” Dr Ould Tah said.
The third paradox, he said, is of opportunity.
He indicated that Africa needs between $130 billion and $170 billion annually to meet its infrastructure needs, with an estimated funding gap of between $68 billion and $108 billion per year.
Meanwhile, the continent offers some of the world’s greatest investment opportunities in energy, logistics, digital infrastructure, food systems and critical minerals. Yet it remains one of the least-funded regions in the global economy, he said.
He pointed out that the debate on whether Africa has potential is over, noting that the real question now is whether Africans themselves are capable of transforming the continent’s assets into productive investment, jobs, value creation and economic influence.
In recent years, the world has changed profoundly, he said.
Citing the COVID-19 pandemic, he said it has disrupted global supply chains.
He also said wars have reshaped trade routes and energy markets.
“External inflationary pressures have affected households and public finances across our continent. Critical supply chains have been weakened. Official development assistance has fallen sharply. And rising interest rates have significantly increased the cost of capital for African economies. Geopolitical fragmentation has returned to the forefront of international relations. And amidst these upheavals, one thing has become clearer. Africa is no longer on the periphery of major global systems,” he noted.
Dr Ould Tah said, from the Suez Canal to the Cape of Good Hope… From the Bab el-Mandeb Strait to the critical mineral corridors fuelling the energy transition… the continent has become central to the way the world thinks about logistics, energy security, critical minerals and future growth.
“The world is gradually rediscovering what Africa has always known: geography still matters. And yet, the most significant change may not be external. It is internal,’ he said.
The 2026 Annual Meetings is under the theme: Mobilising Africa’s Development Financing at Scale in a Fragmented World, and scheduled for May 25 to 29, 2026.
By Emmanuel K Dogbevi, in Brazzaville, Congo
Read the full speech below