Leaders at AFDB’s Annual Meetings call for Africa to fortify itself against financial jolts and engineer robust economies that can hold their ground against climate-induced disruptions.

The AFDB’s Annual Meetings have commenced with a perplexing and bursty call from African leaders and AFDB President, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, to boost financing for Africa’s pressing climate action goals. Adesina highlighted the colossal difference in climate financing resources, with climate financing only trickling into Africa, despite its estimated $2.7 trillion in climate financing needs between 2020 and 2030. Startlingly, Africa only receives a measly 3% of global climate finance, of which 14% is from the private sector, the lowest globally. This year’s Annual Meetings, themed “Mobilizing Private Sector Financing for Climate and Green Growth in Africa,” bring together AFDB’s Board of Governors representing its 81 shareholder countries, development partners, representatives from the private sector, and civil society organizations. The Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, explained that peculiar solutions were necessary to tackle the complex challenges facing countries worldwide, especially in Africa, while citing several statistics from AFDB and the UN highlighting that Africa needed over $400 billion annually to tackle pandemics, climate change, infrastructure upgrades and achieve sustainable development goals. Other speakers, including the Union of Comoros President and Chairperson of the African Union Azali Assoumani and the Chairperson of the African Union Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat, expressed the urgent need for significant bonding to green global transport systems by private investors while exploring ways to tap into the $388 billion market for electric vehicles, with Africa being exceptionally positioned to attract billions of dollars as it possesses 80% of global deposits for platinum, 50% of cobalt, 40% of nickel, and significant lithium deposits. The Bank’s leadership has set up innovative solutions for its member countries, including the African Adaptation Acceleration Program, aimed at mobilizing $25 billion for climate adaptation coupled with the Global Center on Adaptation.