• 6 December 2024 - Rabat, Morocco
His Majesty King Mohamed VI (May God assist Him),
His Excellency Bola Ahmed Tinubu, President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, represented by Senator John Owan Enoh, Minister of State for Industry of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,
Honorable Ministers representing the Heads of State and Government,
Excellencies Governors,
My dear sister and friend, Honorable Minister of Finance and Economy of Morocco, Nadia Fettah Alaoui,
Your Excellency Nandos Bekele-Thomas, CEO of AUDA-NEPAD,
Honorable Ministers,
Presidents and CEOs of the Africa Investment Forum partner institutions,
Executive Directors of the African Development Bank Group (and we have 13 of them here with us, a clear demonstration of the strong support of the Boards of Directors of the African Development Bank Group—and that is half of our Board).
My darling wife, Grace.
Project developers, investors,
Distinguished participants, invitees, ladies and gentlemen.
Three days ago, we all gathered here in the beautiful city of Rabat for the Africa Investment Forum Market Days 2024.
I wish to express my deepest gratitude to His Majesty King Mohamed VI (May God assist Him) for his graciousness and generous hospitality in hosting us for the 2024 Africa Investment Forum. We are also grateful to Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch and the Government of the Kingdom of Morocco for your very warm hospitality that we have enjoyed since we all landed in your beautiful country.
The beauty of your heart, soul and mind.
The beauty of your culture and traditions.
The beauty of your openness and welcoming everyone with open arms.
It was with open arms that His Majesty The King (May God assist Him) gave permission for me to be given the great honor to pay a visit to the Mausoleum of the late King Mohammed V. I had the honor of paying our respects collectively to the memories of King Mohamed V and his two sons, late King Hassan II and Prince Abdallah, may their souls rest in peace.
You have a great heritage.
A heritage of determination.
A heritage of continuity and stability.
A heritage of resilience.
As we all gathered here in Rabat, we joined our hands and hearts, with determination to drive investments into Africa, to accelerate its growth, to move forward successful projects with continuity, and to forge new alliances for stability and resilience of the economies of Africa.
We came here to this historic royal city of splendor, Rabat, a World Heritage Site, to make history.
I am delighted that at the Africa Investment Forum 2024, we have 2,300 participants, an increase of 60% over the attendance last year in Marrakech.
The waves of the Africa Investment Forum are cascading investment ripples from Africa to all parts of the world. You see that at this year’s Forum, with investors and participants from 83 countries from around the world.
The theme of the Africa Investment Forum that brought us all together — “Leveraging Innovative Partnerships for Scale” speaks to why you all came.
You came because you believe in Africa.
You came because Africa offers a compelling investment opportunity.
You came because you know that Africa delivers.
You came to forge strategic investment partnerships.
Partnerships between project developers and investors.
Partnerships between governments and the private sector.
Partnerships between financial institutions.
Partnerships for value creation.
Partnerships for shared prosperity.
The Moroccan proverb says, “One hand alone, cannot clap”.
We need each other to succeed: project developers, investors, governments and financial institutions. We must all clap together.
Across 41 investment boardrooms, investors and project developers, government leaders and financial institutions gathered, to review, discuss and engage on 37 investment projects.
I must say that the level of rigor for projects has increased, in terms of project readiness, with greater focus on investment-ready projects, an enhancement from the previous editions of the Forum.
The projects varied from transport, power, energy, agribusiness, industry, mining, pharmaceuticals, private equity, tourism, urban infrastructure, water management, and water and sanitation.
I am delighted to announce to you, that thanks to you, we have attracted a total of $29.2 billion of investment interest across projects!
And several additional investors expressed their willingness to continue their engagement and work further on the transactions alongside with the Africa Investment Forum partners.
I’d like to say that some investors were seeing some of these projects for the very first time, and really, to garner such a level of investment interest and willingness to pursue work on the projects, is truly outstanding!
Can you hold the hand of the person next to you and say, “Thank you for being here!”
Now we can all clap together! Well done!
The Africa Investment Forum Market Days is a continuum and we, the Africa Investment Forum Founding Partners, pledge to work closely with all investors to support the Africa Investment Forum projects throughout, to bring them to financial close.
The Africa Investment Forum 2024 has been such a rich experience.
As I went around and listened to people, the words I heard often are “The best event I have ever attended”, “This is exactly what Africa needs”, “This event is different, people talk about transactions and are ready for action”.
You all made it all possible.
Just to be sure that I captured well the sentiments, let me ask by a show of hands: How many of you found the Forum useful for your investment decisions? How many of you feel satisfied? How many of you plan to come back for the Africa Investment Forum 2025?
Well, thank you!
We’d love to have you back!
I am excited that already we have 15 new entities, including banks insurers and export credit agencies who have lined up as Africa Investment Forum new sponsors for next year, a clear indication of value creation of the Forum.
There is room for more!
I am also excited that others have expressed interest in joining the Africa Investment Forum as Partners. We are truly becoming a global investment movement for Africa!
All these have been possible due to the hard work and efforts of many people.
I wish to thank all the Africa Investment Forum Founding Partners!
• African Development Bank Group
• Africa50
• Africa-Export Import Bank
• Development Bank of Southern Africa
• Islamic Development Bank
• European Investment Bank
• Trade and Development Bank
• Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa.
I wish to express our appreciation to all our sponsors!
• Japan/FAPA
• Goldman Sachs
• JP Morgan
• Standard Chartered Bank
• Africa Guarantee Fund
• White & Case
• MIGA (the World Bank Group)
• Martha Capital
• MM Finance
• FAGACE
• AZALAI
• Casablanca Finance City
• Texel
• DLA Piper
• NLNG
• And CNN, our global media partner.
I wish to immensely thank the Africa Investment Forum planning teams, ably led by Max Ndiaye, Senior Director of the Africa Investment Forum, Hassatou N’Sele, Finance Vice President, and Yacine Fal (Special Representative for the Africa Investment Forum) and all their teams, who worked with all the Africa Investment Forum partner institutions to jointly plan and deliver the impressive events.
Well done!
They did not work alone. They got great support from a One-Africa Investment Forum team across all Africa Investment Forum partner institutions, including Senior Vice Presidents, Vice Presidents, Director Generals, Managers and NSO leads, General Counsels and legal teams, operations and ecosystem staff, who led the project originations across all the Africa Investment Forum partner institutions.
I’d like all the staff of the Africa Investment Forum and the Founding Partner Institutions to please stand and be recognized.
Thank you! Thank you!
I’d like to thank the event manager (Avant Scene) who built and equipped these impressive tents for our meetings, the management and staff of the Sofitel Hotel, the IT teams, the communications teams, the protocol and hospitality teams who welcomed us at the airports, working very late hours.
Special thanks to all the excellent moderators, including Dr Victor Oladokun and Marie-Angèle Touré, as well as the interpreters who worked tirelessly for us to understand each other, flawlessly.
A big thanks to the Mayor of Rabat and their teams, including the drivers and police escorts, who facilitated our movements.
Thank you again, Morocco, for your partnership and hospitality.
May God bless His Majesty, King Mohamed VI (may God assist Him).
May God bless the Kingdom of Morocco
May God bless the Africa Investment Forum.
And May God bless Africa.
Your Excellencies, partners and colleagues,
This is my final attendance at the Africa Investment Forum in my capacity as President of the African Development Bank Group. That’s because when you all meet next year, I would have completed my two 5-year terms as President of the African Development Bank Group.
I am proud of what we have achieved for Africa.
I am proud of you our Africa Investment Forum partners. Thank you:
• President of the Africa Export-Import Bank, Benedict Oramah,
• President of the Africa Finance Corporation, Samaila Zubairu,
• Chief Executive Officer of Africa50, Alain Ebobissé,
• Chief Executive Officer of the Development Bank of Southern Africa, Boitumelo Masako,
• President of the Islamic Development Bank, Dr. Muhammad Al Jasser,
• President and Managing Director of the Trade and Development Bank, Admassu Tadesse,
• President of the European Investment Bank, Nadia Calvino,
• President of the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa, Dr. Sidi Oud Tah,
• And I am grateful that President Odile Renaud Basso of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development was also here.
I am proud of the Executive Directors of the African Development Bank for believing in the Africa Investment Forum and for their strong current and continued future support for the Africa Investment Forum.
I am proud that we have built a world-class investment platform.
It has been such a great pleasure and honor serving you all as Chairman of the Africa Investment Forum.
It has been the greatest honor of my life serving Africa!
I will keep cheering and pitching for investments in Africa!
Before I close, let me thank Mr. Rakesh Wahi, and all of the Africa Business News Group, for the incredible surprise honor that you gave me today, to be named “African of the Decade”—thank you very much.
I always like to say, “God has not made a mistake when he made me an African.” I live as an African, Il’ll do all I can to my final breath for Africa. And when I die and it is time for resurrection, I will ask God to come out with an African flag.
When you get awards, awards are recognitions but those recognitions are not just for you, the recognitions of an army of believers, who join you to do what you’re doing. Because awards allow to be inspired, to be motivated, to be more dedicated, to be more relentless, to the vision that one has.
And I will say this,
We will not stop believing in Africa.
We will not stop making sure that we make Africa to be like a light house.
And the rest of the world will say, “That is the place to be.”
That is what this honor will continue to help me to do.
But I am not alone. We are actually all here together, so it is for all of us. So thank you very much.
I look forward to seeing you all again!
Thank you very much.
