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The battle for capital

Can new President Ould Tah counter the retreat from development finance in Africa?

Raising capital will be the first immediate challenge facing Sidi Ould Tah, elected on 27 May as the new president of the African Development Bank (AfDB). His previous role as head of the Banque Arabe pour le Développement Économique en Afrique means there is the prospect of stronger links with Gulf countries (AC Vol 66 No 11, Capital dominates the race to run Africa’s biggest bank).

Outgoing president Akinwumi Adesina has presented the bank’s increased capital as one of the main advances during his ten-year tenure. Its capital rose by 242% – from US$93 billion in 2015 to $318bn in 2025. That includes $8.9bn for the African Development Fund, the bank’s soft loan affiliate.

But President Donald Trump’s government has proposed a $555 million cut to US funding for the ADF, while other western shareholders are cutting their contributions to the fund by about $200m.

Ould Tah has said that the AfDB will need to leverage every dollar ten-fold to meet its ambitious targets. His first test is likely to be at the 30 June-3 July Financing for Development conference in Sevilla, where blended and private finance will be at the heart of donor countries’ offering to developing nations.

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