Kaberuka, Speakers Urge Stronger African Institutions at 9th Babacar Ndiaye Conference

LONDON, United Kingdom – Dr. Donald Kaberuka, former President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), has urged Africa to strengthen and integrate its financial and governance institutions to secure the continent’s future amid a rapidly fragmenting global order.

Addressing the 2025 Babacar Ndiaye Conference during the World Bank Group and IMF Annual Meetings in Washington DC, Kaberuka declared that “the world is not waiting for Africa; therefore, Africa must not wait for the world.” He emphasized that African nations must take ownership of their development agenda through resilient local institutions.

A New Global Reality

Kaberuka identified five trends reshaping the global economy: the return of mercantilism, rising narrow national interests, the end of the aid era, weakening global institutions, and the erosion of multilateralism. “We can no longer rely on post-war institutions that were never designed to address Africa’s challenges,” he stated. “Strong nations are built on robust domestic institutions, not borrowed ideas or conditional generosity.”

He advocated for an ecosystem approach where institutions across finance, trade, peace and security, health, and governance function in coordination. “Like an orchestra, African financial institutions cannot achieve their goal alone. They must work together, like a symphony,” Kaberuka insisted.

Charting Africa’s Financial Sovereignty

In his welcome address, Dr. George Elombi, Executive Vice President of Corporate Governance and Legal Services at Afreximbank, called for urgent action to strengthen Africa’s financial sovereignty by completing the continent’s financial architecture. He urged decisive movement toward establishing the African Monetary Fund and African Central Bank as “fully operational pillars of our sovereignty.”

Elombi outlined key imperatives: mobilizing domestic capital through deeper investments in African assets, ensuring regulatory clarity, making the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) fully operational, strengthening countercyclical capacity, and enhancing collaboration with the African diaspora.

“This is the roadmap to an Africa that controls its own narrative and masters its own destiny,” Elombi emphasized. “An Africa that does not wait for others to define it, but defines itself through its vision, determination, and unity of action.”

Defending African Institutions

Elombi, who recently succeeded as Afreximbank’s President, reaffirmed the institution’s preferred creditor status as crucial for financing Africa’s development. He countered narratives questioning African institutions’ credibility, noting that criticism often arises “not because we are failing, but because we are succeeding.”

Highlighting Afreximbank’s disbursement of over $155 billion in the past decade, including $18.7 billion in 2024 alone, Elombi stated: “These are not just numbers. They represent jobs, freedom, and hope. They are living proof of what Africa can achieve when trust matches capability.”

He paid tribute to Dr. Babacar Ndiaye, the fifth President of the AfDB and Afreximbank founder, describing him as a visionary who “understood that true independence means having the capacity to stand on one’s own and shape one’s own future.”

Preserving Financial Sovereignty

During a fireside chat, Dr. Misheck Mutize, Lead Expert for Country Support at rating agencies, emphasized the importance of preserving preferred creditor status for African development finance institutions. He explained this principle enables countercyclical lending, allowing institutions to support economies during crises.

“Preferred creditor status is at the heart of the African financial ecosystem,” Mutize stated. “It ensures that our institutions can continue to lend when others withdraw, maintain development momentum, and access global capital on fair terms.”

Professor Lisa Sachs, Director of the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment, advocated for global financial system reforms, describing the current framework as “completely perverse and fundamentally flawed.” She noted the contradiction between recognizing Africa as the world’s fastest-growing region while advising against borrowing and investment.

Professor Kako Nubukpo, former Dean at the University of Lomé, stressed that changing global risk perception “must start with us,” calling for improved governance and transparency. “We must improve the perception that the rest of the world has of risk in Africa,” he said, warning against “a dangerous discourse that seems to favor mediocrity.”

The 9th Babacar Ndiaye Conference, themed “Leveraging Africa’s Global Capital for Development,” brought together policymakers and business leaders from Africa and the United States to discuss strengthening African financial institutions in a shifting geoeconomic context.

Distributed by African Media Agency (AMA) for Afreximbank. Original content credit: African Media Agency.