World
The New Global Financing Pact: Expected Impact on Africa’s Growth and Development
By Kestér Kenn Klomegâh
The Paris Summit on new global financing pact offers some hope for Africa’s development within the context of the geopolitical changes and competition on the continent because extensive investments are needed across various sectors, especially in modernizing its agricultural sector to increase production and value chain.
Increasing agricultural production will help ensure food security and supply necessary raw materials for the industry. The regular collection of raw materials also adds the required value to commodities, thus making them ready for distribution across the continent. This will effectively support establishing a single continental market and promote intra-African trade.
With the rapid changes in the world today, global players are seriously turning their focus on Africa. The central issue is to gain economic influence and further control of the continent’s politics. As already known, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) spans all the states over the following years, and it has the potential to unite more than 1.3 billion people in a $2.5 trillion economic bloc.
It has the potential to generate a range of benefits through supporting trade creation, structural transformation, productive employment and poverty reduction. The AfCFTA opens up more opportunities for both local African and foreign investors from around the world. This is the latest core element or component in post-colonial Africa. It has become the most significant landmark in the history of Africa. We are indeed talking about the official start of this intra-African trading which, of course, signals the commencement of Africa’s journey to market integration.
Those of us in the academia monitoring, researching and analyzing Africa’s development, it beholds again to closely examine the two-day Paris summit, June 22 to 23, and determine the level of its significance and interconnection with this new global financing pact that will benefit Africa. There will be winners and losers; it is both sides of the same coin. African leaders with strategic eyes and brains will become the first and most brilliant beneficiaries; others with the old mindset will only sustain their status as observers and consequently gain nothing for their countries and citizens.
At this point, the summit primarily seeks to rally political leaders and representatives of global financial institutions. The new financing system will address inequality, debt crisis, climate change, international taxes, and special drawing rights. It will be more inclusive and fairer. Therefore, at least, there are solid grounds to rethink the contract between the countries in the Global North and the Global South.
Given geopolitical contradictions and complexities, one more critical point of focus is formulating new pacts and financial modalities to address the current global economic crisis and climate change.
I can only remind you of the global financial institutions. These include the IMF and the World Bank, civil society and the private sector. It will lay the foundation for creating a new global financing system. The new financing system will address inequality, debt crisis, climate change, international taxes, and special drawing rights. It will be more inclusive and fairer.
Most of their conditions are usually unfavourable to many creditors; however, much again depends on the crediting countries’ implementable policies, approaches and economic goals. At this point, we must ponder a few questions: How does the summit fit into a global context defined by the sweeping consequences of persistent economic, climate, health and energy crises, mainly in the most vulnerable countries? What do we expect from the summit, and what next after all these?
Objectives for the Paris Summit: Catherine Colonna, the French Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs, in a statement on January 6, 2023, noted that the Paris Summit would focus on building a new pact with a Global North and a Global South. According to her, the new arrangement would facilitate vulnerable countries’ access to the necessary finance to address the effects of the current and future crises.
On the same day, the Secretary of State for Development, Francophonie and International Partnerships, Chrysoula Zacharopoulou, and the Permanent Representative of France to the OECD, Amélie de Montchalin, took part in a webinar arranged by the Finance for Development Lab on the issues at stake at the Paris Summit 2023.
In November 2022, on the sidelines G20 Summit and the conclusion of a COP27 Summit with mixed results, French President Emmanuel Macron called for a global conference in Paris in June 2023. Macron announced that the Paris Summit would take stock “of all means and ways of increasing financial solidarity with the Global South.”
Emmanuel Macron’s announcement happened in a particular global context. The climate change crisis particularly threatens the Global South countries, including island states. Thus, the Barbados Prime Minister, Mia Mottley, has led an initiative to finance climate action since COP26. The “Bridge Initiative” focuses on facilitating access to global financing for the countries most vulnerable to climate change. The funding allows them to respond better to climate challenges.
Macron’s announcement aligns with the Bridgetown Initiative. However, the Paris Summit will deliberate on financing issues beyond the climate question, including the fight against poverty. The Covid-19 pandemic, the Ukrainian conflict, and the accompanying consequences have massively shrunk the budgetary and fiscal space for many countries, including Africa. This has affected their ability to finance citizens’ access to basic social needs and services. Consequently, the UNDP observed a human development decline in nine out of ten countries globally in 2022. The fall has mainly come from increased poverty levels and a drop in life expectancy.
AfDB president Dr Akinwumi Adesina will moderate a roundtable discussion about the Alliance for Green Infrastructure in Africa at the Summit for New Global Financing Pact. Seven heads of state will join Akinwumi Adesina. Islamic Development Bank Chairman Muhammad Al Jasser and the European Investment Bank President, Werner Hoyer, will also attend.
The Alliance represents a program by the African Union Commission, the AfDB, and Africa50 with other partners. The platform allows African nations to partner with the private sector to raise $500 million in early-stage combined finance capital. This will catalyze up to $10 billion in green and climate-resilient programs and projects. Its eventual goal is to hasten a transition to net-zero emissions by Africa and for Africa.
The event will promote AGIA as an influential platform. AGIA could accelerate and scale funding Africa’s transformational climate-resilient and greener infrastructure projects to attract new financiers and partners. It will also provide a progress update on the Alliance’s activities since its launch at COP27. The June 22-23 Summit for a New Global Financing Pact is one to anticipate. Many of the deliberations and expected outcomes will no doubt benefit the majority of African nations.
With six round tables, 30 branded events and 50 parallel events and deliberations, there will be a final declaration and communique. Leaders have registered their participation, including the President of Mozambique, Filipe Nyusi, Prime Minister of Barbados, Olaf Scholz, Luis Inacio, the President of Brazil, Lula Da Silva, Germany Chancellor Mia Mottley, Chinese Premier Li Qiang, and US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
Several representatives of international organizations, activists, and philanthropists will also attend. They include AfDB President Akinwumi Adesina, Word Bank President Ajay Banga, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen, UN Goodwill Ambassador and activist Vanessa Nakate, co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and philanthropist Melinda French Gates, among others.
A high-level international steering committee composed of states and international organizations oversees the Paris Summit preparations. It includes France, South Africa, Senegal, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, Barbados, Brazil, Japan, China, India, the United Nations Secretariat, the European Commission, the OECD, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
Civil society campaigns: Ahead of the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact in Paris and the confines of multilateral development bank reforms, the Pandemic Action Network and 19 institutions from around the globe have issued a rallying call for the inclusion of pandemic debt relief clauses in new country lending agreements.
In summary, we expect the summit formulates proposals for innovative financing sources, particularly those from the multilateral development banks. This will ultimately benefit developing countries, including those in Africa. Further, the international institution’s interventions will effectively address and reduce or minimize the vulnerability of economic shocks due to global instability from the pandemic and Russia-Ukraine crisis. We equally expect some reforms in the global financial infrastructure to create a just, sustainable and equitable world.
By Kestér Kenn Klomegâh
Russia’s State Duma, the lower Chamber of Legislators, has reconstituted its Expert Council on the development and support of comprehensive partnership with African countries under Alexander M. Babakov, the Deputy Chairman of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation.
By creating this Expert Council on Russia’s relations with Africa, it underscores the leadership’s strategic policy diversity that aims at advancing a powerful leverage into the African continent, grappling with the tremendous emerging opportunities and the challenges in pursuing socio-economic cooperation, sustaining the political dialogue as well as parliamentary relations.
As part of practical steps toward strengthening economic partnership, African countries grappling with rapidly geopolitical changes, the Expert Council pledges to take unique pragmatic measures toward implementation of the various decisions adopted at both first and second Russia-Africa summits held respectively at southern coastal city of Sochi (October 2019) and in St. Petersburg (July 2023).
In a brief interview after the announcement in late August 2025, Noel Anderson explained that his role together with other members includes designing a long term policy strategy, undertaking innovation initiatives, and especially forging economic expansions into the African continent which is now attracting foreign players. By this appointment, Noel Anderson brings extensive sports and entrepreneurial expertise in contributing to the full-fledged operations of the Council.
The Expert Council draws its members from different spheres including the Russia’s educational institutions, ministries and departments, NGOs and the State Duma. The list made publicly available included Noel Anderson, Russian-Ghanaian entrepreneur and sports amateur. In the historical and professional career context, Noel Anderson became ultimately the first Ghanaian citizen to serve at this top-level position, on the State Duma’s Expert Council, in the Russian Federation.
“Without much doubt, the newly created State Duma Council is, apparently, a powerful engine with multitude of significant tasks to support Kremlin’s and Russian government’s efforts in building relations with Africa. This, therefore, means not only leveraging our existing strategic partnerships with African leaders, but also actively forging new alliances, and strengthening our competitive position across Africa. We will be dealing with aspects of the policy strategies as outlined and proposed by President Vladimir Putin during the first and second Russia-Africa Summits,” Anderson emphasized in the media interview.
According to the official documents made available, Noel Anderson is currently the Head of the Sports Committee of the Union of African Diaspora, Chairman of the Sports Committee of the International Association GATINGO. He is business consultant and also an avid researcher on foreign policy, particularly on Russian-African affairs. He graduated with a PhD from the People’s Friendship University named after Patrice Lumumba.
The State Duma Council members include Professor Irina Abramova, as the Deputy Chairperson of the Expert Council, and Director of the Institute for African Studies (IAS), Nikolay Novichkov, State Duma deputy and Deputy of the Expert Council, Larisa Efremova, Vice-Rector for International Affairs of the People’s Friendship University named after Patrice Lumumba, Alexey Maslov, Acting Director of the Institute of Asian and African Studies at Lomonosov Moscow State University, Igor Morozov, Chairman of the Coordinating Committee for Economic Cooperation with Africa (AfroCom) at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Dmitry IIyich Suchkov, Senior Advisor to the Department of Pan-Africa Problems and Regional Organizations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Oleg Ozerov, Ambassador-at-Large, Head of the Secretariat of the Russia-Africa Economic Forum of the Russian Federation.
In today’s rapidly changing geopolitical environment, Russia has reiterated the importance of creating a new architecture based on a shared aspiration, on peaceful and harmonious coexistence with others. Russia works to lay the foundations for a fairer multipolar world – one built on the principles of sovereign equality of states, constructive cooperation, and a balance of interests in the emerging new world.
The State Duma’s and Alexander Babakov’s website show the full list of members, all the members with their employment backgrounds. The website says the Expert Council will be responsible for optimizing Russia’s policy within the framework of parliamentary relations, and provide support for multifaceted policy dynamics with Africa. The State Duma is the lower chamber of legislators of the Russian Federation.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The trio of Nigeria, Benin and Cameroon have been urged by the African Development Bank (AfDB) to deepen regional cooperation in order to drive an inclusive continental market.
This call was given by the Director General of the Nigeria Department Office of AfDB, Mr Abdul Kamara, on Thursday, noting the bank had invested $55 billion trade-enabling infrastructure in the continent.
Mr Kamara said the lender had also continued to support programmes and initiatives that enhanced the meaningful participation of women and young people in the African market, thus, ensuring an inclusive continental market.
Speaking at the opening of a technical workshop on trilateral trade cooperation among Nigeria, Benin, and Cameroun in Abuja, Mr Kamara said the workshop was convened at a critical moment in the continent’s economic integration.
He said it aligned with the continental priorities of deepening trade integration, accelerating the development of trade-enabling infrastructure, and policy convergence, commending Nigeria and Benin for the progress achieved in their ongoing trade negotiations.
Represented by Regional Integration Coordinator, Nigeria, AfDB, Mrs Ometere Omoluabi-Davies, Kamara stated that these efforts were expected to enhance economic cooperation and boost trade volumes between the two countries under the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS) and intra-regional trade flows.
The bank also hailed Benin for its leadership in regional integration.
“According to the Africa Visa Openness Index, a tool developed by the African Union and the African Development Bank to monitor African countries’ performance regarding the free movement of persons, Benin ranks among the best performers on the continent, offering visa-free access to all African citizens.
“Moreover, the recent expansion of port infrastructure strategically positions the country as a trade-facilitating gateway for intra-African trade.
“To build on this momentum, the bank takes this opportunity to urge Benin to consider ratifying the AfCFTA agreement to consolidate and expand its regional integration gains and unlock market opportunities for ‘made in Benin’ goods and services.”
He added, “I also congratulate the Republic of Cameroon for its active engagement in implementing the AfCFTA and the proactive steps it has taken to expand trade beyond the Central African regional bloc.
*Through its participation in the AfCFTA’s Guided Trade Initiative and the strengthening of trade ties with Nigeria and Benin, Cameroon is helping to unlock the potential of cross-regional trade between West and Central Africa, demonstrating the value proposition of the AfCFTA.
“The outcomes of this strategic workshop are critical. They will set a precedent for the coordinated implementation of regional and continental trade arrangements, helping to identify trade-enabling corridors that connect regions and leverage the comparative advantages of each country.”
He said AfDB was committed to supporting its regional member countries in achieving their regional integration goals and ensuring they benefited from it.
Mr Kamara stated that through its Regional Operations Envelope (ROE) and the Regional Public Goods Window, the bank continues to support regional operations to address hard and soft infrastructure challenges and enhance trade, mobility, competitive value chains, and private sector growth across the continent.
“It is our hope that this strategic engagement will culminate in the development and submission of a joint project proposal by the three countries under the ROE, for a regional operation that will unlock market opportunities, enhance trade between West and Central Africa, and promote a coordinated approach to the implementation of regional trade agreements and the AfCFTA.”
By Adedapo Adesanya
Nigerian billionaire businessman, Mr Aliko Dangote, has signed an agreement with the Ethiopian government to build a $2.5 billion fertiliser plant in the latest move to expand his empire.
The new plant, which will take about 40 months to complete, is expected to produce 3 million tons of fertiliser annually, and will be linked by pipeline to the Calub and Hilala natural gas fields in the southeast.
Signed in the capital city of Addis Ababa on Thursday, Mr Dangote will own 60 per cent of the facility under the agreement, while the remaining 40 per cent will be held by the state-owned Ethiopian Investment Holdings (EIH).
The project will be located in Ethiopia’s eastern Somali region.
EIH noted that the project would significantly cut Ethiopia’s dependence on fertiliser imports, providing a reliable local supply and reducing foreign exchange pressures.
Speaking at the signing, the country’s Prime Minister, Mr Abiy Ahmed, described the deal as a landmark for Ethiopia’s food security ambitions.
“This project will create jobs locally, ensure a reliable fertiliser supply for our farmers who have long faced challenges, and mark a decisive step in our path to food sovereignty,” he said in a statement.
Dangote Industries already operates cement businesses in 10 African countries and runs a 3 million-ton fertiliser hub in Nigeria that began operations three years ago.
“This partnership with Ethiopian Investment Holdings represents a pivotal moment in our shared vision to industrialise Africa and achieve food security across the continent,” Mr Dangote said.
Mr Dangote already has business investments across diverse sectors including cement manufacturing, sugar refining, salt and seasoning production, fertilizer manufacturing, and oil and gas (notably the 650,000 barrels per day Dangote Refinery), among others. He has also disclosed plans to play in other sectors including power generation and steel manufacturing, but some of these haven’t materialised yet due to allegations of monopoly.
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