Yemisi Izuora
The African Development Bank (AfDB) has estimated that Africa can generate
estimated $469 billion in additional annual revenues from stronger tax and non-tax mobilisation, alongside roughly $299 billion in potential savings from improved public investment efficiency.
The Bank also highlighted that public-private partnerships are a powerful lever, with each additional dollar of public investment associated with approximately $1.40 in private investment.
This is contained in the of the 2026 African Economic Outlook, released at the AfDB Group Annual Meetings in Brazzaville, which underscore the continent’s continued resilience in the face of geopolitical tensions, tighter global financial conditions, and supply chain disruptions.
The report projects that Africa’s economies could grow at 4.2 per cent in 2026, moderating slightly from 4.4 percent in 2025, before rebounding to 4.4 per cent in 2027.
According to the Bank’s flagship report, Africa’s growth in 2025 was supported by improved macroeconomic management, stronger agricultural output, elevated commodity prices, and ongoing structural reforms. The continent remains among the world’s fastest-growing regions, with 22 countries projected to grow above 5 per cent in 2025.
Published under the theme, Mobilizing Africa’s Development Financing at Scale in a Fragmented World, the report notes that sustaining faster, inclusive and more resilient growth would require a decisive shift towards mobilising and deploying capital at scale.
This includes strengthening domestic resource mobilisation, deepening and integrating financial systems, expanding capital markets, and enhancing African agency in global finance.
Institutional investors, including pension funds, insurers and sovereign wealth funds, manage around $4 trillion in assets; yet less than 2.7 per cent is allocated to infrastructure and productive sectors in Africa, underscoring significant untapped potential.
The report calls for accelerated efforts to strengthen Africa’s financial systems through pan-African banks, integrated capital markets, and innovative instruments such as climate and Islamic finance. A central pillar to this is the New African Financial Architecture for Development (NAFAD), which aims to leverage over $4 trillion in assets within Africa’s financial ecosystem.
The report also highlights the role of the African Credit Rating Agency, launched in January 2026, as an important tool for addressing perceived biases in sovereign risk assessments. While Africa’s stock market capitalisation reached $1.2 trillion in 2024 — nearly sixfold growth over two decades — activity remains concentrated in South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria, and Morocco, pointing to the need for broader market integration.
The report further underscores the importance of advancing continental initiatives, such as the African Financing Stability Mechanism to ease liquidity pressures, strengthen financial stability, and help African countries manage debt refinancing risks at lower cost
At the heart of the 2026 AEO report is a stark assessment of Africa’s development financing shortfall: the continent faces an annual gap exceeding $1.3 trillion to meet the Sustainable Development Goals. The African Development Bank attributes the deficit to low domestic resource mobilisation, weak financial intermediation and tightening external financing conditions.
However, it argues, the issue is not only about a lack of resources but also about effectively deploying capital.
With appropriate reforms, Africa could unlock up to $1.43 trillion annually through improved revenue collection, more efficient public investment, staunching illicit financial flows and corruption, deeper capital markets, expanded public-private partnerships, diaspora financing, and better use of natural capital.