Rabat – African Development Bank (AfDB) President Sidi Ould Tah urged African governments and financial institutions to intensify efforts to mobilise private capital to bridge the continent’s widening infrastructure and development financing gap.
Speaking at the opening of the 2025 Africa Investment Forum (AIF) in Rabat, which began on 26 November under the theme “Bridging the Gap: Mobilising Private Capital to Unlock Africa’s Full Potential,” Ould Tah outlined the AfDB Group’s four strategic priorities for the coming period.
He emphasised the need for a major mobilisation of equity capital, supported by innovative financing instruments capable of multiplying each dollar invested by ten, in order to attract greater private sector participation.
Ould Tah also highlighted plans to reform Africa’s financial architecture through a three-tier system – national, regional, and continental – to enhance coordination among financial institutions.
Other priorities include transforming Africa’s demographic growth into economic strength by boosting financial inclusion, entrepreneurship, and skills development for youth and women – particularly in STEM and digital sectors – as well as building resilient infrastructure and increasing value addition to natural resources through investments in energy, logistics, digital infrastructure, and industrialisation.
He warned that Africa’s demographic trajectory – expected to constitute a quarter of the world’s population by 2050 – must be harnessed through structural transformation and large-scale investment to avoid becoming an economic strain.
Morocco’s Minister of Economy and Finance, Nadia Fettah Alaoui, reaffirmed the country’s commitment to supporting private investment and strengthening the ecosystem for public–private partnerships. She said Morocco aims to increase private investment to two-thirds of total national investment by 2035, driven by regulatory reforms, infrastructure upgrades, and industrial expansion.
The Minister noted that Africa needs an estimated $1.3trn annually to meet its development objectives, underscoring the importance of innovative financing tools and deeper collaboration between public and private stakeholders.
The 2025 AIF brings together governments, development finance institutions, and global investors to accelerate transformative projects across energy, transport, logistics, and digital sectors.
Launched in 2018 by the AfDB and its partners, the AIF serves as a multi-stakeholder platform to mobilise private capital for high-impact projects across the continent. Africa requires between $130bn–170bn annually for infrastructure alone, while public financing remains far below this threshold. Since its inception, the Forum has catalysed more than $225bn in investment interest, with $32bn in transactions reaching financial close.
