Mbabane – Eswatini’s development prospects may receive a boost as the African Development Bank Group intensifies efforts to reshape how African countries access development financing, mitigate risk, and engage private investors.
This follows a robust working session between the AfDB and regional financial institutions, where leaders emphasised the need for Africa to present a united front in global financing platforms such as the United Nations General Assembly.
The AfDB leadership stressed that speaking “with one voice” will help Africa secure fairer financing and ensure that the continent’s development priorities, such as energy access, climate adaptation, industrialisation, and job creation are effectively communicated.
African Development Bank Group Vice President for Private Sector, Infrastructure & Industrialization, Solomon Quaynor, said the session had reinforced the urgency of working more cohesively.
“We can work together a whole lot more, do this as a system… that system is not only we, working with you, but you working with others,” he said, noting that the AfDB will hold bilateral and multilateral conversations to determine how best to allocate capital under this renewed vision. “We are going to mobilise partners,” he added.
For Eswatini, this approach aligns with the country’s ongoing efforts to attract foreign investment, strengthen financial institutions, and scale up support for the private sector—particularly in manufacturing, agriculture, renewable energy, and youth entrepreneurship.
AfDB Executive Director Dr Ould Tah described the discussions as “enlightening” and announced the formation of a task force to address key issues emerging from the consultations. These include, strengthening equity, improving derisking tools, enhancing subsidiarity avoiding duplication, increasing access to concessional loans, boosting liquidity for African development finance institutions.
These priorities directly relate to Eswatini’s development needs, especially as the country seeks more concessional financing for infrastructure, climate resilience, and social sectors such as health and education.
Dr Ould Tah also revealed that he will engage with international private sector players and credit rating agencies in London in mid-December, immediately after the final meeting of the Seventeenth Replenishment of the African Development Fund (ADF-17), the Bank’s concessional lending arm.
The outcome of ADF-17 is expected to determine the size of concessional resources available to low-income and vulnerable countries, including Eswatini, over the next funding cycle.
As the AfDB moves to consolidate partnerships and streamline financing frameworks, Eswatini stands to gain from a better-coordinated African development finance system—one that promises stronger capital mobilisation, reduced borrowing risks, and accelerated investment in priority sectors
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