African Development Bank President Sidi Ould Tah has called on the continent’s financial institutions to align their decision-making and financing instruments more closely with the needs of businesses, warning that delays and poor coordination can weaken economic growth even where capital exists within the financial system.
Speaking at the opening of the Africa Financial Summit in Luanda on 3 November 2026, Ould Tah argued that banks and other financial institutions frequently work to reporting cycles, investment horizons and processing timelines that differ from the immediate pressures faced by companies. The AfDB reported his remarks on 5 November, following the summit held on 3 and 4 November.
The distinction matters particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises. A company waiting for credit approval may still need to pay workers, fulfil an order, buy inputs or transport goods. When financing arrives too late, the opportunity may disappear even if the business is fundamentally viable. Ould Tah linked such mismatches to lost jobs, missed market access and continued dependence on imports that local producers might otherwise supply.
He presented the New African Financial Architecture for Development, or NAFAD, as a framework for better coordination among national, regional and continental financial institutions. The initiative is intended to improve how capital is mobilised, financial risks are shared and institutions work together while retaining their individual mandates. It should not be confused with a newly announced pool of immediately available cash.
Ould Tah also cautioned against assuming that assets held across Africa’s financial system can simply be redirected to any development priority. Those assets belong to different institutions and investors, each with its own liabilities, mandates and time horizons. Mobilising them for productive investment therefore requires suitable instruments, safeguards and credible projects, not only political commitments.
At the summit, Angola’s Minister of State for Economic Coordination, José de Lima Massano, emphasised the importance of stronger financial systems in economic transformation. International Finance Corporation Managing Director Makhtar Diop described collaboration with the AfDB, Afreximbank and the Development Bank of Southern Africa, and referred to discussions with sovereign wealth funds and institutional investors about long-term resources for productive sectors.
Diop also proposed private-sector councils in individual countries to identify reforms and advise governments on implementation. The proposal points to a wider challenge: access to finance is affected not only by the amount of capital available but also by regulation, project preparation, contract enforcement and the quality of information available to lenders.
For entrepreneurs, a better coordinated financial architecture would need to produce tangible changes. These could include clearer application requirements, predictable approval timelines, financing suited to working-capital cycles and more effective mechanisms for sharing risks on long-term investments. Such outcomes remain goals rather than confirmed results of the Luanda discussions.
The AfDB said it is working to streamline its own processes so that clients understand what is required, who is responsible and how long decisions should take. That commitment offers a practical benchmark against which businesses and governments can assess progress.
The summit’s central message is that African finance will be judged less by institutional ambition than by whether viable enterprises can obtain timely capital, invest in production and create employment. Delivering on that message will require measurable changes in how financial institutions serve the real economy.
Source
Reporting based on the official African Development Bank announcement.
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