African Development Bank Annual Meetings

Africa50 was pleased to join the 2017 Annual Meetings of the AfDB in Ahmedabad, India from May 22-26. CEO Alain Ebobisse and COO Carole Wainaina participated, and Mr. Ebobisse was invited to speak on the panel “Financing African Infrastructure” on May 23. 

Poor infrastructure cost Africa a cumulative 25 percent in foregone growth in the last two decades alone, equivalent to the growth rate achieved in the past ten years. The growing productivity gap between Africa and the rest of the developing world is exacerbated by the continent's poor infrastructure, and its industrialization agenda could become a pipedream without a substantial overhaul and meaningful investment in infrastructure. Bridging the infrastructure gap will require substantial funding which governments and multilateral development banks cannot meet alone.

With this background, the panel was asked to identify the key policy decisions for encouraging investment in infrastructure and innovative financing solutions, as well as incentives to increase private sector investment.  

Mr. Ebobisse was joined by:

Pierre Guislain, Vice President, Private Sector, Infrastructure and Industrialisation, AfDB

Janet Heckman, Managing Director, Southern and Eastern Mediterranean, EBRD

Jingdong Hua, Vice President and Treasurer, International Finance Corporation 

Sergei Kuznetsov, Director General and Legal Counsel, New Development Bank 

Charles Corbett, Managing Director, Head of Financial Institutions, Standard Chartered Bank

Adesegun Akin-Olugbade, Executive Director and COO, Africa Finance Corporation

For pictures of the panel discussion please follow this link.