Egypt - The 58th Annual Meetings of the African Development Bank (AfDB), held in Sharm el-Sheikh (Egypt), will focus on attracting external financing to make green investments in the African continent, the President of the African Union (AU) Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, said Tuesday.

Speaking at the opening of the AfDB's annual meetings, he said member countries must take specific reforms to reduce investment risks while eliminating all phenomena of corruption and misappropriation of public funds and illegal financing in addition to reviewing the inappropriate tax base.

The Chairperson of the AU Commission went on to say that if African countries do not implement these crucial reforms, the business climate will be amorphous and uncompetitive. The meetings are held from May 22 to 26, 2026 under the theme "Mobilising Private Sector Finance for Climate and Green Growth in Africa." They are attended by about 4,000 participants representing 81 countries.

Governor of the Egyptian Central Bank, Hassan Abdullah, for his part, mentioned the significant financing gap that the countries of the continent are facing to fight the effects of climate change.

He said the volume of national and international financial funds allocated for this purpose in Africa does not exceed 12% of the total funding required in 2020, or the equivalent of about 30 billion dollars.

He explained that climate change has contributed to the reduction of water resources for an estimated 75 to 250 million people in Africa, in addition to the decline in average agricultural production rates.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sissi called on multilateral financial institutions to reconsider the criteria and conditions that allow countries to obtain loans on favourable terms, so that they are accessible to low- and middle-income countries, especially in light of the escalating cost of borrowing, the increase in debt servicing and its negative effects on the financial budgets of these countries.

He added that climate change is affecting all countries in the world, especially the least developed, leading to increased drought, more desertification and declining agricultural production.

"It is estimated that the risks associated with drought alone have resulted in losses of more than $70 billion in countries on the African continent, in addition to a decline of about 43% in the continent's agricultural production growth," he said.

He went on to say that the African continent needs $144 billion a year to cope with the effects of the 'COVID-19' pandemic and $108 billion a year to finance infrastructure development and improvement projects.

To cope with the negative effects of climate change, the African continent will need about $3 trillion in financing by 2030, he said.

President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Akinwumi Adesina, for his part, stressed that securing financial resources to fight climate change has become "difficult" for African countries, which are suffering from high levels of debt and inflation as a result of several international geopolitical conflicts.

Adesina said the level of financing operations for climate initiatives has not reached the required level, recalling that the African continent needs US$2.7 trillion for the period between 2020 and 2030.

The AfDB is committed to providing about 63% of the total financing for climate initiatives, exceeding the global target of 50%, he added.

In 2022, the AfDB has secured 45% of total climate finance, exceeding 40% of its commitments, he said.

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