Brazzaville, Republic of Congo – May 29, 2026
There was strong momentum in advancing the agenda of the New African Financial Architecture for Development (NAFAD) as the Association of African Development Finance Institutions (AADFI) successfully concluded its 2026 Annual General Assembly in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, under the theme “Augmenting Sovereign Finance in Africa: DFIs Unlocking Growth and Resilience through the New African Financial Architecture for Development (NAFAD)”.
The event, held from May 24 to 26, 2026, on the sidelines of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group Annual Meetings, was hosted by the AADFI member institutions in the Republic of Congo – the Fonds de Garantie, d’Impulsion, et d’Accompagnement (FIGA) and the Banque de Développement des États de l’Afrique de Centrale (BDEAC), with support from the African Development Bank, at the Kintélé International Conference Center. It brought together senior leaders of African development finance institutions (DFIs), policymakers, development partners, and experts to deliberate on the NAFAD agenda and other priorities shaping Africa’s development finance ecosystem.
The 2026 Annual General Assembly activities included: the 121st Meeting of the Board of Directors, the Annual Workshop, the 52nd Ordinary General Assembly (OGA), and the Executive Committee Meeting of the AADFI Economists Forum. These activities reinforced AADFI’s role as a continental platform for coordination, policy dialogue, and collective action among African DFIs.
The 121st Meeting of the Board of Directors
The 121st Meeting of the Board of Directors was held on May 24, 2026. The meeting considered the first quarter 2026 Strategic Implementation Report, the 2025 Audited Accounts, and key institutional and governance matters.
2026 Annual Workshop
The 2026 Annual Workshop, held on May 25, 2026, was declared open by Mr. Christian Yoka, Minister of Finance, Budget, and Public Portfolio of the Republic of Congo, who reaffirmed his government’s commitment to strengthening national financial institutions and deepening domestic financial systems. In her opening remarks, Dr. Patricia Ojangole, Chairperson of AADFI, emphasized the need for well-capitalized DFIs and better integration of DFIs into government policy formulation, supported by appropriate regulatory frameworks, African-led rating mechanisms, and enhanced co-financing. In their welcome addresses, Mr. Dayi Allaire Branham Kintombo, Director General of FIGA, highlighted FIGA’s accession to AADFI as a strategic step to strengthen regional integration, mobilize sustainable resources, and support SME development in Congo, while Mr. Dieudonné Evou Mekou, President of the Banque de Développement des États de l’Afrique Centrale (BDEAC), underscored the urgency of addressing Africa’s structural financing gaps through systemic reforms anchored in a new African financial architecture, such as the New African Financial Architecture for Development (NAFAD) initiative of the AfDB.
The opening session set a clear tone for the Workshop, highlighting the urgency of scaling up financing, addressing structural constraints, and leveraging the NAFAD as a transformative framework to advance Africa’s development finance needs.
The workshop featured three panel discussions on the following sub-themes: Capital Mobilization – Turning Barriers into Opportunities for African DFIs; The Role of DFIs in Using the NAFAD Platform to Facilitate a Shift toward Third-Party Guarantee Providers; and Accelerating Early-Stage Project Preparation through NAFAD. Mr. Ahmed Attout, Director of the Financial Sector Development Department at the AfDB. He contextualized the New African Financial Architecture for Development (NAFAD), a system-wide, coordinated approach to addressing Africa’s financing gaps by mobilizing domestic and global capital and deploying a full range of financial instruments.
The panelists underscored that Africa’s challenge lies less in the availability of capital than in activating existing resources through improved coordination, innovative instruments, and risk-sharing mechanisms. Guarantees, local-currency financing, and currency hedging mechanisms were agreed to reduce sovereign risk exposure, lower borrowing costs, and, if properly integrated, crowd in private capital. The workshop also underscored that the lack of well-prepared, bankable projects was a key constraint on scaling finance. As such, coordinated project-preparation facilities under NAFAD would be critical to building credible investment pipelines.
52nd Ordinary General Assembly
The 52nd Ordinary General Assembly (OGA) was held immediately after the Annual Workshop on May 25, 2026. The OGA is the AADFI’s highest statutory decision-making body. It ratified the Board’s decisions and approved the audit report and the Annual Report for 2025. The outcomes of the OGA reaffirmed members’ collective commitment to strengthening AADFI’s role as a continental platform for collaboration and strategic alignment among African DFIs.
AADFI Economists Forum Executive Committee Meeting
The Executive Committee of the AADFI Economists Forum met on May 28 at the Kempinski Hotel to advance its mandate to promote research, knowledge exchange, and evidence-based policymaking across member institutions. It reviewed progress on its ongoing research and on strategic thematic dialogues.
The success of the 2026 AADFI Annual General Assembly reaffirms the Association’s central role in advancing coordination, policy dialogue, and collective action among African DFIs.