At a moment when international funding is drying up at the level of developed countries, the African Development Bank (AfDB) believes that Africa can mobilize its own resources to finance its development. Hence the launch of the wide-reaching project, the “New African Architecture for Development.”
The leadership of the AfDB was in Paris this week to mobilize African diasporas in favor of this project. A concept that elicits mixed opinions.
The AfDB estimates that the diaspora’s savings amount to 4,000 billion dollars lying idle in banks on the continent. This pan-African institution aims to better mobilize these funds and redirect them toward development projects.
The target market, for now, includes insurers, African pension funds or even sovereign wealth funds.
Franck Behiblo, director of a financial company based in Switzerland, welcomes this approach. “The diaspora also needs mechanisms, instruments to be able to invest,” he says on the microphone of Bineta Diagne.
Guarantee funds to reassure
To reassure potential diaspora investors, the AfDB finances guarantee funds in particular. An indirect way for it to reassure SMEs.
Didier Acouetey, adviser in charge of the New African Architecture for Development, explains: “The AfDB supports guarantee funds such as Atidi [African Trade and Investment Development Insurance, NDLR] or African Guarantee Fund, which specifically guarantees SME risk. Tomorrow, when the diaspora wishes to invest in a financial instrument, Atidi can come in as a third party that reassures the diaspora investor.”
But within civil society circles, some run into a financial barrier, as with Ines Feviliyé, originating from Congo-Brazzaville.
“We pay at least 35% of our income in terms of taxes, and we find ourselves in countries like ours where there is still no electricity for us, the business operators. But that is a huge burden,” she says.
Another challenge for the AfDB is to popularize the instruments through which the diaspora can participate in financing projects on the continent.
