Full Text: Akufo-Addo’s Speech At 2022 AfDB Annual Meeting

It is my great pleasure to welcome you all to Ghana, and to the 57th African Development Bank and 48th African Development Fund Annual General Meetings.As we say in Ghana, “Akwaaba!” You are amongst a people who pride themselves on their sense of hospitality.

I congratulate the African Development Fund (ADF), the concessional lending arm of the African Development Bank, on the celebration of its golden jubilee.

In my address last year, I challenged us to prioritise five (5) main issues:-work towards a debt action plan;-collaborate and work with the World Bank and the IMF on the Debt Service Suspension Initiative and the G20 Common Framework;-explore options for the strategic use of the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) to support Africa through the AfDB;-work with IFAD and other global institutions to promote the establishment of a food security facility; and-promote the African Financial Stability Mechanism for greater financial market stability for Africa.As we speak, the case for adhering immediately to these suggestions is even more compelling.

As a Triple A-rated financial institution with an active portfolio of some $61 billion in more than one hundred and forty-two thousand (142,000) locations, the AfDB is in a position to drive sustained transformation in Africa.It is in this spirit that I am happy to learn that the AfDB Board has approved funding for the $1.5 billion Africa Emergency Food Production Plan to support countries to produce food rapidly, while delivering climate-resilient agricultural technologies to 20 million farmers and thus leveraging this facility over eight (8) times.I am also encouraged to hear that the ‘right noises’ are being made towards establishing an African Financial Stability Mechanism to protect our economies from future shocks.

With increased financial resources, the Bank could recapitalize key African financial institutions, such as the Regional Development Banks, Afreximbank, Africa Guarantee Fund, Africa-Reinsurance Company and Africa50.This will harness the collective institutional strengths of Africa for sustained transformation, and will, thus, avoid the situation whereby, for example, the IMF, as at the end of 2021, was able to lend forty-one billion dollars ($41 billion) to Argentina, with a population of forty-five million people, compared to thirty-four billion dollars ($34 billion) for the whole of sub-Saharan Africa, with a population of 1.14 billion people.Empowering these African institutions and engaging communities will be vital to addressing the socio-ecological challenge of our time – Climate Change.Beyond pursuing ecological restoration, the AfDB should foster a culture of proactive and risk-based approaches; away from current reactive and crisis-based practices.

As the AU Champion of Financial Institutions in Africa, I pledge my support in this regard.Given our peculiar energy challenges, the Bank should engage actively the discourse on shifting to a more sustainable economic model without making African communities and nations worse-off.

Africa must exploit her productive capabilities collectively, and build the capacity of her continental development banks in order to realize the Africa We Want and an Africa Beyond Aid.Accordingly, ladies and gentlemen, it is my singular honour to declare the Annual General Meetings of the African Development Bank Group, duly open.I wish you a very fruitful meeting.May God bless the African Development Bank Group, Mother Africa, and us all.I thank you for your attention.