” My continent is a question mark on the world map.”
This masterful formula by Tchicaya U Tam’si, a monument of Negro-African literature in French, resonated with particular intensity in the packed hall of the Kintélé Congress Palace. Evoked by the President of the African Development Bank Group, Dr. Sidi Ould Tah, and then reiterated by the Congolese Prime Minister, it gave these 2026 annual Assemblies a scope that far exceeds the institutional framework. It sums up the African paradox: that of a continent abundantly endowed with resources, but still insufficiently in control of their economic transformation for the benefit of its people.
The numbers sum up this contrast with relentless eloquence: nearly $4 trillion of African savings under management, facing an estimated annual financing deficit of $400 billion. It is within this gap that the entire ambition of the New African Financial Architecture for Development (NAFAD) lies, a central axis of the four cardinal points advocated by President Ould Tah. But beyond the numbers, however spectacular they may be, one thing is clear: without political will, no financial architecture can produce the expected effects.
Brazzaville has precisely demonstrated this will.
Throughout these meetings, President Denis Sassou N’Guesso stood at the forefront, mobilized alongside the AfDB staff, investors, and institutional partners. This commitment translated into the mobilization of $3.5 billion in commitments for the Congo Basin Blue Fund, illustrating Africa’s ability to structure collective responses to its strategic challenges.
In the same vein, the announcement of the abolition of visas for all African citizens from January 1, 2027, goes beyond symbolism. It reflects a clear understanding of the interdependence between financial integration, free movement, and the acceleration of the African Continental Free Trade Area.
Africa, and particularly the Congo Basin, now awaits the global mechanisms agreed upon in major international forums—from COP to the G7—to fully take into account this fundamental requirement: enabling the continent to consolidate and mobilize its own savings for its economic and social transformation.
President Sidi Ould Tah leaves Brazzaville strengthened.
Endowed with a rare listening capacity and a proven sense of compromise, he leaves with the reaffirmed support of his Board of Governors, the endorsement of his Board of Directors, and the confidence of a staff reassured by the strategic clarity of his vision. The same echo is found among the institutional and private partners of the Bank, aware that the AfDB cannot do everything, but that it can play the essential role of a catalyst, coordinating public, private, and institutional actors around a more coherent, more effective architecture focused on financing African businesses, especially SMEs.
In Brazzaville, a conviction has emerged.
The question mark mentioned by Tchicaya U Tam’si has not disappeared. But, for the first time in a long time, it seems to be turning into an exclamation point. And perhaps that is the main political achievement of these 2026 Assemblies.
### Speech by Sidi Ould Tah on Africa Day
President of the African Development Bank Group
Inaugural Address – The Brazzaville Manifesto for a New African Financial Ambition
Delivered on May 25 on Africa Day, Sidi Ould Tah’s speech is one of the founding texts of these 2026 annual Assemblies.
The President of the African Development Bank Group presents the political and strategic vision underlying his mandate: to accelerate the transformation of the Bank, strengthen its institutional agility, and develop a New African Financial Architecture for Development capable of mobilizing continental savings on a massive scale.
In a speech with strong pan-African implications, he calls for overcoming fragmentation logics to build a more sovereign, integrated, and influential African financial landscape in a world undergoing reconfiguration.
This speech sheds light on the doctrinal foundations of the “four cardinal points” that have structured all the work in Brazzaville.
▶ See the speech: Financial Afrik TV – Sidi Ould Tah’s Speech (Africa Day)
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### Governors endorse Sidi Ould Tah’s four cardinal points
The Board of Governors of the African Development Bank Group formally supported the strategic vision articulated around the “four cardinal points” defended by President Sidi Ould Tah. Presiding over the closing ceremony, Ludovic Ngatsé, Congolese Minister of Economy and President of the Board of Governors, called for accelerated implementation of reforms aimed at strengthening the institution’s operational agility and making the AfDB the architect of the new finance for African development.
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### $3.5 billion mobilized for the Congo Basin Blue Fund
One of the highlights of these Assemblies was the roundtable dedicated to the Congo Basin Blue Fund. The commitments recorded reached $3.5 billion, intended to support 17 African countries in projects related to environmental conservation, climate resilience, and sustainable development. This mobilization reinforces the Congo Basin as a global strategic asset.
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### Angola strengthens the African Development Fund
Luanda announced a contribution of €6.5 million to the 17th replenishment of resources for the African Development Fund (ADF-17). This announcement brings the total number of contributing African countries to 25, with a total amount exceeding $190 million, a strong signal of Africa’s increasing ownership of the continent’s concessional mechanisms.
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### Visa abolished for Africans entering Congo from 2027
President Denis Sassou N’Guesso announced that starting January 1, 2027, all African nationals will benefit from visa-free access to Congo. Hailed by Sidi Ould Tah as a “courageous and deeply pan-African decision,” this measure is part of the dynamic acceleration of continental integration.
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### Japan injects $10 million into African aviation transformation
Tokyo announced a $10 million package for the deployment of the Integrated Aviation Transformation Program (IATP) in Africa. This support aims to improve intra-African connectivity, an essential condition for facilitating continental economic exchanges.
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### AfDB and African Social Security Association: alliance on long-term savings
The AfDB Group and the African Social Security Association signed a letter of intent to better mobilize the resources of pension funds and social security institutions for development financing. The agreement fully aligns with the NAFAD’s logic: directing long-term domestic savings towards structural investments.
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### African deposit funds support NAFAD
Gathered on the sidelines of the Assemblies, the leaders of African deposit and consignment funds welcomed the reform initiative of African financial architecture. They emphasized the need for strong regulatory frameworks and independent governance to transform dormant savings into productive capital.
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### Brazzaville, the first major show of strength for Ould Tah’s mandate
These annual Assemblies were the first major institutional meeting for President Sidi Ould Tah since taking office in September 2025. After five days of intense work, the new president leaves strengthened, with a clarified political mandate: to make the AfDB the pivot for mobilizing African resources on a large scale.
### The Voices of Brazzaville
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### Exclusive interviews by Financial Afrik on the sidelines of the 2026 annual Assemblies
Beyond the statutory sessions, Financial Afrik seized the 2026 annual Assemblies as a space for strategic analysis.
Over five days, our teams collected insights from several top decision-makers—financial institution leaders, fund managers, chief economists, and architects of the new African finance—to extend the discussions on the transformation of the continent’s financial architecture.
Find all these interviews on the Financial Afrik YouTube channel.
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### Kevin Chika Urama
Vice President and Chief Economist, African Development Bank Group
Africa Economic Outlook 2026, macroeconomic resilience and success factors of NAFAD
▶ Watch on the Financial Afrik channel: Financial Afrik TV – Interview Kevin Chika Urama
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### Gérardine Mukeshimana
Vice President, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)
Agricultural transformation, food sovereignty, and rural financing in the new African architecture
▶ Watch the interview: Financial Afrik TV – Interview Gérardine Mukeshimana
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### Diene Keita
Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)
Exclusive Interview – Demographics, human capital, and development financing in Africa
On the sidelines of the 2026 annual Assemblies of the African Development Bank, Diene Keita discusses a central yet often underestimated issue in financial debates: transforming Africa’s demographic dividend into a real lever for sustainable growth.
In this interview with Financial Afrik, the UNFPA leader analyzes the necessary conditions to make human capital a strategic pillar of the new African financial architecture: investment in youth, women’s empowerment, reproductive health, education, and inclusion.
She also emphasizes that the large-scale mobilization of African resources cannot fully materialize without massive investment in people, an essential condition for any structural economic transformation.
The exchange puts into perspective the articulation between development financing, demographic transition, and the sustainability of African economic trajectories.
▶ English version: Financial Afrik TV – Interview Diene Keita (EN)
▶ French version: Financial Afrik TV – Interview Diene Keita (FR)
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### Olivier Pognon
Director, African Legal Support Facility (ALSF)
PPP, sovereign debt, critical minerals: the new legal challenges of African states
▶ See the interview: Financial Afrik TV – Interview Olivier Pognon
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### Jon-Pierre Fourie
Senior Director, Strategy & Investor Relations, Africa50
Asset recycling, project bankability, and financing continental infrastructure
▶ Watch: Financial Afrik TV – Interview Jon-Pierre Fourie
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### Didier Acouetey
President, AfricaSearch Group
The role of the private sector and SMEs in operationalizing NAFAD
▶ Access the interview: Financial Afrik TV – Interview Didier Acouetey
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### Sir Roger B. Jantio
Senior Managing Director & CEO, Sterling Merchant Finance
Artificial intelligence, financial innovation, and the evolution of investment banking roles
▶ See the analysis: Financial Afrik TV – Interview Sir Roger B. Jantio
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### Michel Djombo
Minister of Industrial Development, Special Economic Zones, and Private Sector Promotion
Industrialization and special economic zones in Congo
▶ Discover here: Financial Afrik TV – Interview Michel Djombo
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### Jacqueline Lydia Mikolo
Minister in charge of Trade of the Republic of Congo
Exclusive Interview – Trade, regional integration, and Congo’s new economic ambitions
On the sidelines of the 2026 annual Assemblies of the African Development Bank, Jacqueline Lydia Mikolo discusses Congo’s trade priorities in a context marked by accelerated African economic integration.
The minister analyzes the reforms undertaken to enhance the competitiveness of the national productive fabric, streamline trade, and better position Congo in regional and continental value chains.
The interview also addresses the opportunities presented by the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), trade facilitation challenges, as well as the link between trade policy, investment attractiveness, and economic diversification.
In this exchange, she also highlights the strategic significance of the presidential decision to abolish visas for African nationals, seen as a strong signal in favor of concrete and operational economic integration.
▶ Watch the interview: Financial Afrik TV – Interview Jacqueline Lydia Mikolo
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### Manuel Moses
General Manager, ATIDI
Risk management, private capital mobilization, and security of African investments
▶ Discover here: Financial Afrik TV – Interview Manuel Moses
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### Barry Adama-Dian
Deputy Resident Representative, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Congo
Exclusive Interview – How UNDP supports the “Promise” program in Congo
In this interview with Financial Afrik on the sidelines of the annual Assemblies, Barry Adama-Dian discusses the role of UNDP in supporting the Promise program, a key tool for public innovation support, institutional resilience, and accelerating structural transformations in Congo.
▶ Watch the interview: Financial Afrik TV – Interview Barry Adama-Dian
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### Carlos Lopes
Economist, Professor at the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance, former Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa
Exclusive Interview – Rethinking African financial sovereignty in a world of global recompositions
On the sidelines of the 2026 annual Assemblies of the African Development Bank, Carlos Lopes shares with Financial Afrik his insights on the profound changes in international political economy and their implications for Africa.
The former UN official analyzes the conditions necessary for the emergence of a true continental financial sovereignty, Africa’s ability to better mobilize its domestic savings, and the essential institutional levers to make the New African Financial Architecture for Development (NAFAD) an operational instrument rather than just a conceptual framework.
In this exchange, he also discusses the challenges of geo-economic fragmentation, productive transformation, and strategic repositioning of the continent in a multipolar world.
▶ Watch the interview: Financial Afrik TV – Interview Carlos Lopes
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### Admassu Tadesse
Group President & Managing Director, Trade and Development Bank (TDB Group)
Exclusive Interview – Financing African trade in a fragmented world
On the sidelines of the 2026 annual Assemblies of the African Development Bank, Admassu Tadesse deciphers the new challenges of financing trade and investment on the continent in an increasingly fragmented geo-economic context.
The TDB Group President discusses the strategic role of regional financial institutions in securing trade flows, mobilizing long-term capital, and strengthening African financial resilience against external shocks.
The interview also sheds light on the growing role of regional development banks in building a more integrated, agile, and productive African financial architecture.
▶ Watch the interview: Financial Afrik TV – Interview Admassu Tadesse
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### Yves Castanou
General Manager, Congo Telecom
Exclusive Interview – Accelerating digital sovereignty and telecom infrastructure in Congo
On the sidelines of the 2026 annual Assemblies of the African Development Bank, Yves Castanou discusses the challenges of Congo’s digital transformation and the strategic role of telecom infrastructure in accelerating economic development.
The General Manager of Congo Telecom details the modernization priorities of the public operator, the investments made to enhance national connectivity, and the prospects for regional digital integration at a time when technological sovereignty becomes a central lever of competitiveness.
The interview also explores the role of digital infrastructure in mobilizing investments, financial inclusion, digital service development, and the emergence of a more connected Congolese economy linked to continental dynamics.
▶ Watch the interview: Financial Afrik TV – Interview Yves Castanou
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### Barthélémy Kouamé
General Commissioner of Africa Road Builders
Exclusive Interview – Infrastructure, continental connectivity, and accelerating African integration
On the sidelines of the 2026 annual Assemblies of the African Development Bank, Barthélémy Kouamé deciphers the new challenges of financing road infrastructure and their role in the continent’s economic integration.
The General Commissioner of Africa Road Builders discusses the urgency of strengthening strategic corridors, modernizing transport networks, and making infrastructure a real lever of competitiveness for African economies.
The interview also highlights the conditions for mobilizing public and private capital necessary for accelerating major connectivity projects, as well as the importance of better regional coordination to transform the ambitions of the AfCFTA into operational realities.
In this exchange, he underscores the strategic role of initiatives like Africa Road Builders in promoting a culture of performance, visibility, and excellence in the development of African infrastructure.
▶ Watch the interview: Financial Afrik TV – Interview Barthélémy Kouamé
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### Find all our special video coverage of Brazzaville 2026 on:
Financial Afrik TV
From our special correspondents in Brazzaville: Dominique Mabika, Soraya Bacary, Gilves Embounou, Adama Wade.
