“For the continent’s financial strength to translate into economic power, African financial institutions must keep pace with the businesses they serve,” African Development Bank Group President Sidi Ould Tah said at the opening of the Africa Financial Summit (AFIS) in Luanda on 3 November.
In his keynote address, President Ould Tah presented the New African Financial Architecture for Development (NAFAD) as a framework aimed at strengthening collaboration between institutions in Africa’s financial system. NAFAD is a coordination initiative designed to rethink the way capital is mobilised and risks are shared within the African financial ecosystem.
President Ould Tah highlighted the disconnect between the timeframe of financial institutions, governed by reporting cycles, investment horizons and processing times, and that of businesses, measured in terms of business cycles, order fulfilment and talent retention. This disconnects, he argued, is one of the main causes of lost economic growth in Africa.