Delivering the 2025 Babacar Ndiaye Lecture on the sidelines of the World Bank Group/IMF Annual Meetings in Washington DC, Kaberuka warned that “the world is not waiting for Africa; therefore, Africa must not wait for the world,” and urged African nations to take ownership of their development agenda through resilient, homegrown institutions.

Reflecting on global power shifts, Kaberuka pointed to the return of mercantilism; rising narrow national interests; the end of the aid era; weakened global institutions; and the erosion of multilateralism as the five trends that are reshaping the global economy. For Africa, that means turning inward, while leading the charge for a renewed global architecture. “We can no longer rely on post-war institutions that were never designed to address Africa’s challenges,” he said. “Strong nations are built on strong, homegrown institutions; not on borrowed ideas or conditional generosity.”

Kaberuka emphasized that Africa’s development requires an ecosystem approach, where institutions across sectors – finance, trade, peace and security, health, and governance – operate in coordinated harmony rather than isolation. “Like an orchestra, African financial institutions on their own will not get to the end point. It has to be part of an ecosystem of African financial institutions and not simply financial institutions. They have to operate together in a symphony,” he urged.

Africa Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), Kaberuka said, must be commended for exemplifying this model through its support for the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), the regional economic communities and other initiatives and institutions of the continent. 

Kaberuka, who is also the Chairman and Managing Partner of SouthBridge, a financial advisory and investment firm, further argued that Africa must lead in reshaping global governance to reflect 21st-century realities and replace the post-World War II institutions such as the Bretton Woods system which were primarily designed for the reconstruction of Europe and Japan and not for the needs of emerging African economies. “We can no longer outsource our future to institutions that were never meant to serve us,” he said, calling for the continent to take a more assertive role in creating new multilateral frameworks that champion African priorities.

Kaberuka stressed that as the world moves from globalization to fragmentation, Africa’s ability to define and defend its interests will depend on the strength, coordination, and legitimacy of its own institutions. Pointing to over $1.1 trillion held by African pension and sovereign wealth funds, he called for new models to mobilize and connect this capital with global investment flows. “It is not only about mobilizing African capital,” he said. “It is about defining how that capital is deployed for Africa, by Africa.”

Earlier, in his welcome remarks, Dr George Elombi, Executive Vice President, Corporate Governance and Legal Services and incoming President of Afreximbank called for urgent action to strengthen Africa’s financial sovereignty through the completion of the continent’s financial architecture. Elombi said the time has come to move decisively toward the establishment of the African Monetary Fund and the African Central Bank as “full operational pillars of our sovereignty.”

He outlined some imperatives for African financial institutions going forward. These include mobilising domestic capital by deepening investment in African assets, ensuring regulatory clarity to uphold investor confidence and fully operationising the AfCFTA. He also called for expanding counter-cyclical capacity and encouraging collaboration with the African diaspora to boost investment and co-create solutions. “This, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, is the roadmap to an Africa that controls its own narrative and owns its own destiny. An Africa that does not wait to be defined by others, but defines itself through vision, resolve, and unity of action,” he emphasised.

Elombi, who has taken over as the 4th President of the pan-African Multilateral Development Bank following his selection by the board at the general shareholders meeting in June, reaffirmed Afreximbank’s preferred creditor status as an essential safeguard for Africa’s ability to finance its own development. Cautioning against narratives that question the credibility of African institutions, he noted that such criticism often arises “not because we fail, but because we succeed.” Afreximbank, he noted, has disbursed over $155bn in the past decade, including $18.7bn in 2024 alone. “These are not just numbers,” he said. “They represent jobs, freedom, and hope. They are living proof of what Africa can accomplish when trust is matched by capacity.” Elombi argued that the real challenge facing the continent is not risk, but perception. “Africa is not merely bankable; Africa is dependable,” he said.

Elombi also paid tribute to Dr. Babacar Ndiaye, the fifth president of the AfDB and one of the founders of Afreximbank, describing him as a man “whose vision turned words into action.” Ndiaye, he said, believed that Africa’s progress depended on institutions built, financed, and led by Africans, a conviction that gave rise to Afreximbank, Shelter Afrique Development Bank, and the African Business Roundtable. “Dr. Ndiaye understood that true independence means having the capacity to stand on our own and to shape our own future, no matter how the world around us changes,” he said. Elombi reaffirmed Afreximbank’s commitment to Ndiaye’s legacy, stressing that the agenda must continue “until the task of development is significantly achieved”.

During a fireside chat jointly moderated by Anver Versi, editor of New African magazine and Omar Ben Yedder Group Publisher and Managing Director, IC Publications, Dr. Misheck Mutize, Lead Expert, Country Support on Rating Agencies, Africa Union stressed the importance of preserving the preferred creditor status of Africa’s development finance institutions. He explained that the preferred creditor status is a long-standing principle enjoyed by traditional multilaterals like the IMF and World Bank which allows such institutions to lend counter-cyclically, continuing to support economies even in times of crisis. For Africa’s regional and continental financial institutions, he said, this principle is not a privilege but a right embedded in their founding treaties, as they too were established by member states to bridge financing gaps and fund essential infrastructure and development projects.

Dr. Mutize cautioned, however, that the validity of PCS for African multilaterals has come under increasing scrutiny from international credit rating agencies, especially following a few sovereign defaults on the continent. He rejected the notion that African development banks must offer concessional loans to qualify for PCS, arguing instead that these institutions perform a unique public mission – blending developmental purpose with financial sustainability. “The preferred creditor status lies at the core of Africa’s financing ecosystem,” he said. “It ensures our institutions can continue to lend when others retreat, sustain development momentum, and access global capital on fair terms.”

For her part, Professor Lisa Sachs, Director of the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment, advocated for reforms to the global financial system, which she said was “completely perverse and fundamentally broken.” She stressed that Africa’s development requires long-term, affordable finance, which is currently constrained by a global risk assessment framework that misrepresents Africa’s creditworthiness and growth potential. “The IMF acknowledges that Africa is the fastest-growing region in the world,” she said, “yet at the same time advises African governments not to borrow and invest. That contradiction shows how broken the system is.” Sachs said new international partners such as those in Asia and the Global South, who recognise Africa’s promise and are willing to build equitable financial partnerships that align with the continent’s development ambitions, offer a hopeful alternative for the continent.

Adding his voice, Professor Kako Nubukpo, formerly Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Management at the University of Lome stressed that shifting global perceptions of Africa’s risk “must begin with us,” and called for stronger governance and transparency to rebuild confidence. “We need to improve the perception that the rest of the world has of risk in Africa,” he said, warning against “a dangerous discourse that seems to prioritise mediocrity.” 

He further emphasised the need for genuine financial sovereignty, noting that “you can’t ask permission from the financial market to build a hospital.” True independence, he argued, will come only when African leaders “show vision, the ability to lead, and the courage to evaluate what we are doing.”

This year’s Babacar Ndiaye Lecture was the 9th in the series held in honour of the late Ndiaye, who was the driving spirit behind the establishment of Afreximbank and other key pan-African institutions. It was held under the theme “Leveraging Global Africa’s Capital for Development: The Imperative for Stronger African Financial Institutions amid Geo-economic Shifts” and was attended by policy makers and business leaders from the continent and the United States where it was held.

Distributed by African Media Agency (AMA) on behalf of Afreximbank.