Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, March 26, 2021 — The Association of African Development Finance Institutions held the first Consultative Forum for Regional DFIs and other DFIs involved in cross-border finance in Africa via videoconference on March 25, 2021, in collaboration with the African Development Bank (AfDB).

The meeting gathered 25 representatives from 16 DFIs and discussed how to scale up collaboration and partnership among African DFIs, particularly in promoting development financing on the continent and strengthening the involvement of the Regional DFIs in the activities of the AADFI.

In his opening statement, Mr. Thabo Thamane, Chairman of AADFI, represented by Mr. Abdelouahab Boushaba, AADFI Board member, reiterated the need for partnership to harness the opportunities and potentials within African DFIs for national and continent-wide development.

While Mr. Anthony Ehimare, Representative of Regional and Honorary Members on the AADFI Board, in his remarks, stated that the meeting would make input on how to strengthen the relationships among the AADFI Regional members in promoting their mandates. He also informed that suggestions from the meeting would serve as input to the new AADFI strategic direction.

Mr. Stefan Nalletamby, Director of the Financial Sector Development Department of the AfDB, while declaring the meeting open, reiterated the need to strengthen cooperation between regional, sub-regional, and national DFIs in Africa, and scale up the involvement of regional and sub-regional DFIs in AADFI’s activities.

The representatives of the participating institutions shared their institutions’ perspectives in promoting development in Africa and working with the group and made suggestions on the way forward.

The key conclusions from the meeting were as follows:  

1. The formation of the Focus Group and the conveying of the Consultative Forum were commended.
2. The meeting reiterated the importance of the bigger DFIs to not only support the AADFI activities but also work closer among themselves and with other national DFIs across Africa for advancing sustainable development on the continent.
3. The Forum agreed on the need to strengthen cooperation on project opportunities, co-financing and syndication, research and knowledge sharing, information dissemination, and capacity-building.
4. The AADFI Secretariat should liaise with members of the group to coordinate partnership and information sharing and develop an action plan to actualize the conclusions reached.
5. The Consultative Forum for Regional DFIs would be held semi-annually.

For more information about the AADFI and its upcoming activities, visit www.adfi-ci.org.