The closing press conference of the 49th Annual Meetings of the African Development Bank (AfDB) on Thursday, May 23 in Kigali once again gave AfDB President Donald Kaberuka an opportunity to return to the concept of the Africa50 Fund.
According to Kaberuka, "The Africa50 Fund is a simple concept adopted after 12 months of preparation, based on the mobilisation of African savings to finance African infrastructure.
"For a long time, we have relied on external financing to fund our infrastructure. Now is the time for the African Development Bank to mobilise sovereign African savings - currently estimated at $1,000 billion - to build the Africa of tomorrow," said Kaberuka.
AfDB Governors have given their approval for the creation of the Fund and have agreed to release $30 million to begin its feasibility studies. According to Kaberuka, the ultimate goal is to take the Africa50 Fund budget to $1 billion. He added that the Fund is also open to foreign monies.
On the theme of the AfDB 2014 Annual Meetings, "The next 50 years: the Africa we want", Kaberuka said the important thing to remember was the type of planning that would need to be implemented to achieve a prosperous continent.
