The African Development Bank has thrown its weight behind calls for reforms of the international financial architecture.
AfDB Group Secretary-General Vincent Nmehielle said Africa needs a complete transformation in terms of socio-economic development.
“Since independence in a number of African countries, we are still looking forward to that kind of socio-economic development that is transformative,” he said.
Nmehielle said the needed transformation is still work in progress.
He spoke atone of the events during AfDB’s Annual Meeting that kicked off in Nairobi on Monday under the theme: Africa’s transformation, the African Development Bank Group, and the reform of the Global Financial architecture.
The AfDB boss said a lot has been achieved but much more needs to be done and that African Development Bank’s has a role in the whole transformation process.
Nmehielle said the international financial architecture was designed mainly to deal with how to resuscitate Europe after the end of the Second World War.
“And to what extend that has been applied to other developing countries in other words making access to development finance, what role the AfDB can play within that process would be something that would be within the whole of overall discussion that we would be having, ”he said.
African countries have repeatedly called for reforms to international financial institutions such as the World Bank.
They argue that they are burdened with debt and struggle to access concessional financing.
President William Ruto’s administration has been vocal in calling for a total overhaul of the current financial institutions, saying their conditions are unfair to African countries.
Ruto has maintained that international development financing must be more appropriate for the needs of the existential moment, in terms of accessibility, affordability and adequacy.
In July 2023, he also made similar calls for reforms at the African Union’s 5th biannual coordination meeting in Nairobi.
“Today, Africa has $640 billion in outstanding debt and pays nearly $70 billion in interest every year. It would only be fair for us to have a financing mechanism that treats us on an equal footing," he said.
