The 2026 Annual Meetings of the African Development Bank Group opened officially today in Brazzaville, the Republic of the Congo, with leaders expressing confidence in the institution, and the strategic vision of its President, Dr Sidi Ould Tah, to mobilise financing at scale and speed for Africa's economic transformation.
"Development finance for Africa henceforth requires more daring approaches," Congolese President Denis Sassou- N'Guesso said in his speech during the ceremony at the Kintele International Conference Centre.
The theme of the 2026 Annual Meetings is "Mobilising Africa's Development Finance at Scale in a Fragmented World." It is the first Annual Meetings for Ould Tah who took office in September 2025.
President Sassou-N'Guesso whose country last hosted the Bank Group's Annual Meetings in 1984, described it as "more than just a financial institution. It is an instrument of African solidarity, a strategic partner to states, and a major lever for the transformation of the continent."
Dr Sidi Ould Tah giving his first speech as President of the African Development Bank Group at its 2026 Annual Meetings at Kintele International Conference Centre, Brazzaville.
Dr Ould Tah has proposed a New African Financial Architecture for Africa's Development (NAFAD), which was endorsed in February by the African Union Heads of State and government. It received strong support in April during a landmark Consultative Dialogue by leaders of Africa's financial ecosystem, resulting in the Abidjan Consensus. NAFAD received further significant international support during the Africa Forward Summit held in May in Nairobi.
The Deputy Chairperson of the African Union, Selma Malika Haddadi, said. "This landmark consensus seeks to foster deeper collaboration among Africa's financial institutions, address structural barriers to mobilising resources on a large scale, bridge Africa's annual development finance gap of USD400 billion, and unlock the continent's vast domestic savings and productive investment."
Haddadi who represented the Chairman of the AU Commission Mahamoud Ali Youssouf, said the AU had established an African credit rating agency (AfCRA) to provide "credit assessments that reflect our realities, our reforms and our potential."
In his remarks, Bank President Ould Tah said for decades, the world looked to Asia as the primary engine of global growth; but today, "Africa is experiencing comparable growth or higher, according to some indicators."
He said major transformation is underway across Africa, with a new generation of entrepreneurs building companies with continental, and increasingly global ambitions, and using digital tools to solve socio-economic problems.
However, African innovations tend to remain local or marginal, because the financial architecture surrounding the continent has not evolved to mobilise finance at the speed and scale required for the continent's transformation, Dr Ould Tah said.
Opening ceremony of the 2026 Annual Meetings of the African Development Bank Group, Kintele International Conference Centre, Brazzaville.
"Too often, African savings do not sufficiently finance African development. Part of the explanation lies in fragmentation. And in today's world, fragmentation comes at a cost. I often remind people that international investors do not invest in projects. They invest in instruments," he said.
"That is why Africa must strengthen its own financial architecture, said Dr Ould Tah,
"This is the whole logic behind NAFAD... Not to create new layers of bureaucracy, but to better align the institutions we already have."
Dr Ould Tah said the role of the Bank has to change because the era during which it was established, no longer exists.
From Left to Right: Denise Epoté, Moderator; President Denis Sassou N'Guesso, President of the Republic of the Congo; President Faustin,-Archange Touadéra, President of the Central African Republic; President Brice Oligui Nguema, President of the Republic of Gabon; and Dr Sidi Ould Tah, President of the African Development Bank.
"In a time of global uncertainty, institutions also need a compass," Dr Ould Tah said, as he highlighted the Bank's Four Cardinal Points strategic vision to help Africa mobilise more capital at lower cost: support stronger and better-connected African financial systems; transform Africa's demographic into economic opportunity -- especially for young people and women; and help build the infrastructure, industrial capacities, and value chains capable of creating more wealth in Africa.
During the ceremony, President Sassou N'Guesso honoured Dr Ould Tah and five other executives of the Bank Group with the Congolese Order of Merit. OuldTah and Vincent Nmehielle, the Bank Group's Secretary-General, were decorated with the rank of Commander of the Golden Heart. The Chief of Staff, Thierry Hot; Leandre Bassolé, Director-General for the Central African Region, Olivier Béguy, Country Economist in the Central Africa Region, and André Basse, Head of Protocol, received the rank of Chevalier.
Thousands of delegates from many parts of the world, including governors representing the Bank Group's 81-member-countries, are attending the five-day Annual Meetings.
Dr Sidi Ould Tah, President of the African Development Bank Group, receiving a decoration from the President Denis Sassou N'Guesso of the Republic of Congo
