HIBAPRESS
African finance ministers affirmed on Wednesday in Rabat that accelerating private investment in Africa requires a conducive environment for enterprise growth and sustainable development.
In their interventions during the African Investment Forum 2025, which is held until November 28 under the slogan "Reducing Gaps: Mobilizing Private Capital to Unleash Africa's Full Potential," the ministers agreed on the importance of structural reforms to enhance investor confidence, secure transactions, and create competitive, stable, and transparent business environments.
On this occasion, the Minister of Economy and Finance, Nadia Fettah, emphasized the need to design strong projects with high implementation capacity in order to reach the required level for international investors.
The Minister explained that some sectors, such as aviation, energy, and data centers, should benefit from coordinated and joint approaches at the continental level to attract large amounts of capital.
Fettah also addressed the exchange rate policy in Morocco, considering it a factor of confidence, recalling the review of the currency basket in 2015 and the gradual expansion of the dirham's fluctuation range in 2018 and 2020.
Fettah affirmed that this strategy is based on continuous coordination based on solid macroeconomic fundamentals and close coordination between public policies and policies of the Central Bank, which allows maintaining a reserve equal to 5.5 months of imports.
For her part, the Minister of Economy, Planning, and Development of Côte d'Ivoire, Kaba Nialy, praised the slogan of this session of the African Investment Forum, which comes in a context marked by a decline in social financing, considering that ensuring the suitability of private financing with needs has become a collective responsibility for Africa.
She highlighted the efforts made by Côte d'Ivoire since 2012 to mobilize private investments, especially through the review of the investment code in 2018 and making it more attractive.
For his part, the Guinean Minister of Planning and International Cooperation, Ismail Nabi, highlighted the importance of partnerships between the public and private sectors through the Simandou integrated mining project, worth $30 billion, which brings together partners from Africa, Asia, Europe, America, and the Middle East.
This project includes the construction of a 650-kilometer railway line and a multi-use port, connecting the south of the country to its north, and linking Guinea to its neighbors, which enhances regional economic integration.
Furthermore, the Mauritanian Minister of Economic Affairs and Development, Abdullah Suleiman Sheikh Sedia, in his speech, emphasized the urgent nature of the demographic challenge in Africa, noting that by 2050 the continent's working-age population will equal the combined total population of China and India at present.
He explained that African countries cannot afford the necessary public investments on their own, given financial constraints and the risk of displacing the private sector.
Sheikh Sedia reviewed the reforms that have been implemented in Mauritania, especially the adoption of one of the most protective public-private partnership laws in the world in 2024, which provides strong guarantees for investors, including protection from nationalization and guarantees of payment of contracted amounts.
Also participating in this dialogue of finance ministers, which began under the slogan "Accelerating Private Investment Through Conducive Environments," were the Zambian Minister of Finance and Planning, Situmbeko Musokotwane, and the Ethiopian Minister of Finance, Ahmed Shide.
The African Investment Forum, which is held under the high patronage of King Mohammed VI until November 28, is an investment platform aimed at facilitating international investments in Africa, by bringing together project owners, financiers, governments, and other stakeholders, with the aim of conducting financial transactions.
This forum is organized by the African Development Bank, along with six founding partners, represented by the African Export-Import Bank, the African Finance Corporation, Africa50, the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa, the Development Bank of Southern Africa, and the Trade and Development Bank.
