The African Development Bank Group and the Arab Coordination Group launched a new partnership phase to scale co-financing, mobilise private capital, and accelerate Africa’s economic transformation.
The partnership was unveiled on Tuesday at a High-Level Consultation Meeting at the AfDB’s headquarters in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, according to information published on the Bank’s website.
The AfDB said the initiative comes as Africa faces a widening development financing gap and rising pressure to mobilise capital for critical sectors including energy access, climate resilience, food security, regional integration, and private-sector-led growth.
According to the AfDB, the consultation established a common platform for the AfDB and ACG members to jointly anchor Arab-African co-financing by combining their balance sheets, long-term financing capacity, sectoral expertise, and country platforms.
Discussions, the AfDB said, focused on mobilising larger and more coordinated public and private investments in support of Africa’s development investment priorities.
“Participants explored concrete pathways to enhance joint project preparation, harmonise financing approaches, strengthen policy dialogue, leverage comparative advantages, and supporting country-led development agendas, while ensuring that investments delivered measurable impact and long-term resilience,” AfDB stated.
The consultation, the bank said, aligned with the AfDB’s broader agenda to strengthen Africa’s financial sovereignty through the New African Financial Architecture (NAFA), which seeks to better integrate development finance institutions, guarantee providers, insurers, capital markets, and private investors.
The High-Level Consultation Meeting culminated in the adoption of a Joint Declaration on a Strategic Partnership between the ACG and the AfDB.
The Declaration outlines a shared political vision and translates it into operational priorities, while also establishing institutional follow-up mechanisms to guide the next phase of Arab-African cooperation.
Africa’s development financing needs are growing rapidly, while traditional sources of funding remain constrained. By deepening cooperation between the AfDB and the ACG, the partnership aims to unlock larger pools of long-term and counter-cyclical financing that can support transformational projects across the continent.
The initiative is particularly significant as it seeks to crowd in private capital and align public financing with Africa’s long-term economic transformation goals, including industrialisation, climate adaptation, and regional integration.
The Joint Declaration provides for the development of a Financing and Operational Partnership Framework, expected to be considered in 2026.
The framework will define modalities for co-financing, pipeline coordination, mutual reliance, and regular joint programming between the AfDB and ACG institutions.
The Declaration recognises the central role of the African Development Fund (ADF), the AfDB Group’s concessional financing arm, in supporting low-income and fragile countries.
It also calls for exploring closer collaboration between ACG institutions and the ADF to enhance impact in vulnerable economies.
Naijaonpoint previously reported that Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, projected that Arab–African trade could expand by more than $37 billion over the next three years.
Naijaonpoint previously reported that Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, projected that Arab–African trade could expand by more than $37 billion over the next three years.