The African Development Bank president Akinwumi Adesina has called for investors to join the partnership platform offered by the Africa Investment Forum and “grab the chance to fast track the continent’s investment and development agenda”.
His message was a clarion call to regional and global investors, financial sector leaders and prominent government officials who filled the Africa Room auditorium of the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa, for a plenary session entitled “Delivering As One for Africa,” on the first day of the Forum.
“We must fast track Agenda 2063,” Adesina urged. “To deliver as one. We are impatient to get there,” he added.
Officially kicking off the Forum, Manemolla David Makhura, Premier of Gauteng referred to the Africa Investment Forum as ‘historic and the ‘first of its kind.’
He further indicated that Africa needs to move from poverty to prosperity. ‘We want the 21st to be the African century,’ he told delegates.
The Africa Investment Forum is the first ever transaction-based Forum, “This is not an event. It is a platform where governments, private sector, investors, and project promotors come together. We develop quality bankable projects, de-risk them and actually make sure it happens,” Adesina said.
