Event

MFW4A and AfDB will convene with governmental authorities of the region, in addition to donors, multilateral and regional financial institutions, and private sector representatives for a dialogue on accelerating the financial sector development in the Eastern and Southern Africa in Nairobi, Kenya from 25 to 26 October 2018.

The objective of this high-level meeting is to:

• Take stock of the current state of current reforms in the financial sector of Eastern and Southern Africa;

• Identify priority areas and actions, including innovative financial instruments, where Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) can reinforce their contribution to financing the real economy;
• Adopt a common roadmap for new initiatives in favor of financial sector development; and
• Promote the inclusion of these initiatives in the strategies of the AfDB and regional and international development institutions.

The East Africa region consists of eleven (11) countries, including Burundi, Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. Between 2016 and 2019, economic growth in East Africa is perceived as high in Africa by African development Bank (AfDB) estimations, compared to the other sub-regions. However, fiscal deficits and domestic resources gap threaten these countries ability to significantly finance their development needs, as well as economic growth sustainability in the medium and long term. Alternative instruments – leasing, factoring, guarantee funds, crowdfunding, venture capital, non-financial support services, etc. – should be promoted at domestic and regional levels to better face the funding requests by economic players such as SMEs which make the bulk of the East African private sector: more than 90%, according AfDB data.

Concerning Southern Africa, the region is largely dominated by the South African economy and by Angola to a lesser extent, but the potential for more financial sector contribution in the development and integration processes is undoubtedly high. Twelve (12) countries belong to the Southern African region, including Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Based on the 2018 Southern Africa Economic Outlook by AfDB, domestic resource mobilization in the region appears as a critical challenge whose solutions could partially be found abroad through recourse to international institutional investors and DFIs, by revising and strengthening cross-border investments legislation, and also by broadening tax base / financing supply to SMEs and informal businesses.

This dialogue will be an ideal opportunity to evaluate the regional financial sectors’ potential to contribute to domestic and community strategic priorities, and how international investors and DFIs could leverage their investment portfolios in the Eastern and Southern Africa region.

• Region Global
• Language English