Casablanca – The inaugural panel of the Africa Financial Industry Summit (AFIS) 2025 presented a firmer stance on the future of the African economy, as African leaders called upon African countries to look within themselves and tap into their domestic capital that will fuel economic growth.
Moderated by Manal Bernoussi, founder & managing director of Leaders on Purpose, this panel discussion brought together a cast of high-level notables, including Morocco’s Minister of Economy and Finance Nadia Fettah, IFC Regional Vice President for Africa Ethiopis Tafara, Access Holding Chairman Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, African Guarantee Fund CEO Jules Ngankam, as well as Ecobank Group CEO Jeremy Awori.
Entitled “Africa Does Not Need Saving, It Needs Its Own Savings,” the session highlighted the paradox that lies at the heart of African finance: the fact that whilst the African continent is home to trillions of dollars in savings in the form of pension funds, insurance schemes, sovereign wealth vehicles, and commercial banks’ reserves, much of this money remains outside of the continent instead of supporting domestic development.
Finance Minister Nadia Fettah offered a pithy analysis of this disparity. “Our money doesn’t need visas—Africans do,” she stated, pointing out that funds from the continent flowed effortlessly into international markets, yet domestic sectors lack appropriate funding.
Fettah pointed to three broad barriers: limited market scale, rigid institutional frameworks, and uneven macroeconomic conditions. “None of our stock exchanges has more than 100 listed companies,” Fettah noted.
“What we lack is not funds, but trust and bankable projects,” emphasized Ethiopis Tafara of the IFC. “A market requires three components: a place to trade, property rights, and most of all, trust,” he added.
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Tafara called for stronger, adequately funded regulators to help build trust among investors, as well as a greater emphasis on preparing SMEs for funding by improving their accounting systems.
A challenge, according to Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, is in leadership and mindset. Using a metaphor that compares Japan’s post-war rebuild, he stated, “If there’s a problem with plumbing, don’t look at the pipes—look at the plumbers.”
Aig-Imoukhuede called upon African leaders and financial groups to “de-risk African markets at scale” by directing savings in African industries such as property and small businesses.
Jules Ngankam of the African Guarantee Fund highlighted risk and cost as the most important barriers to funding SMEs, referring to lack of information systems, political instability, as well as high costs of regulations as factors that inhibit funding.
Chiming in in support of this sentiment, Ecobank’s Jeremy Awori stated that perception is a big problem. “African wealth often stays abroad because of perceived safety and better yields,” he added.
Awori suggested that African pension funds, as well as African countries’ sovereign funds, be used to boost African banks’ capital in order to address the gap between savings and long-term development.
The panel concluded on a cautious, yet positive note. Fettah called upon African countries to “share their success stories”, while Tafara looked ahead to a day when fintechs will help transform savings accounts into investment accounts for millions of people. Ngankam & Awori emphasized the power of innovation in reducing costs.
As Bernoussi rightly concluded, the challenge in the continent is no longer money, but the audacity to use that money to benefit the people of Africa.
