The Ministry of Planning, Economic Development, and International Cooperation participated in the 2024 African Caucus Meeting held in Abuja, Nigeria from August 1-3, 2024.
According to Sada El Balad, the meeting, hosted by the Governors of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group, was titled “Facilitating Intra-African Trade: Catalyst for Sustainable Economic Growth in Africa” and was under the patronage of Nigerian President Bola Tinubu. It was attended by delegations and ministers from various African countries and representatives from international financial institutions.
Dr. Rania Al-Mashat, Minister of Planning, Economic Development, and International Cooperation and Egypt’s Governor at the World Bank Group, commented on the meetings, highlighting their significance within the ongoing discussions between the African Group and the World Bank Group.
Al-Mashat emphasized the importance of enhancing cooperation with one of the largest multilateral development banks to overcome the continent’s developmental challenges and advance the Africa 2063 development agenda.
The minister underscored the crucial role of multilateral development banks in fostering economic growth by encouraging private sector investments, providing concessional financing, and promoting partnerships for capacity building, knowledge exchange, and technology transfer.
She further noted the alignment between Egypt Vision 2030 for sustainable development and Africa 2063, emphasizing the importance of coordination with the World Bank to achieve regional integration and leverage South-South cooperation mechanisms to benefit from developmental experience exchanges.
Al-Mashat added that the ongoing meetings in Nigeria are enhancing the continuous cooperation between the World Bank and continental stakeholders to implement the Continental Free Trade Area Agreement.
World Bank officials presented the group’s strategy for regional integration in Africa during the meetings. They also discussed the initiative launched in April between the World Bank Group and the African Development Bank to provide electricity to approximately 300 million people in Africa by 2030 through distributed renewable energy systems or distribution networks.
This initiative is crucial for enhancing services for the continent’s citizens and supporting economic growth through partnerships between multilateral development banks and private sector investments.
The meetings also explored ways to activate the Continental Free Trade Area Agreement by standardizing payment systems across the continent, enhancing digital transformation efforts, developing sustainable infrastructure, and implementing effective policies to promote digitization. Additionally, the discussions covered topics such as facilitating access to finance for startups and digital technology from the private sector, guarantees as a source of finance in Africa, and improving trade and regional integration. The meetings also addressed infrastructure development, energy provision, and connectivity services to create a conducive economic environment for growth, the impact of digital transformation on developmental change, and the benefits of partnerships with multilateral development banks.
The discussions also included the 21st replenishment of the International Development Association (IDA) resources of the World Bank.
It should be noted that there are numerous areas of cooperation and mechanisms between the World Bank Group and African countries, particularly through affiliated institutions such as the International Finance Corporation and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), which provides investment guarantees to stimulate the private sector.
In this context, the World Bank has issued several diagnostic reports on various development areas in Africa, including the Digital Africa report, the Land Policies for Resilience and Inclusive Growth report, and structural reforms to encourage the private sector.
