Morocco urges more sustainable finance in Africa

Africa needs further access to sustainable finance to achieve development goals and bolster growth, Moroccan finance minister Nadia Fattah said.

“The long-awaited growth of our continent depends heavily on the ability of our countries to access the financing needed to achieve the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the African Union’s Agenda 2063,” Fattah said at the opening of the 5th edition of the Africa Investment Forum (AIF).

She stressed the need for mobilizing and leveraging private capital, in tandem with public resources, in order to provide more substantial financing for the benefit of African economies.

Noting the efforts of multilateral development banks, she said “we still have a long way to go to enable the private sector to play its full role in reducing the financing gap for the Sustainable Development Goals.”

She said particular attention should be paid to the financing needs of middle-income African countries given the key role that these countries could play as sub-regional growth poles.

Speaking at the same event, head of the African Development Bank (AfdB) underscored the investment opportunities offered in Africa, a continent with an increasing demand on infrastructure, housing and consumer goods.

As Africa’s population is seen doubling to 2.4 billion by 2050, “Africa will brim with unparalleled demand for consumer goods and services, digital services, as well as housing, with the demand for housing expected to rise to an investment opportunity of $1.4 trillion,” he said.

The size of Africa’s food and agriculture market will rise to $1 trillion by 2030, he said, adding that demand for infrastructure presents an annual investment opportunity of at least $170 billion a year, from energy to transport, digital infrastructure, water and sanitation.