The African Development Fund (ADF), the concessional financing arm of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB), has mobilised a record US$11 billion from 43 partners for its 17th replenishment (ADF-17), the largest funding round in the Fund’s history.
The outcome represents a 23% increase over the previous replenishment and comes despite severe global fiscal pressures and declining aid budgets, sending a strong signal of confidence in Africa’s development prospects and the AfDB Group’s leadership.
“This is not just a replenishment,” AfDB president Sidi Ould Tah said. “It is a turning point. In one of the most difficult global environments for development finance, our partners chose ambition over retrenchment, and investment over inertia.”
Africa steps up as co-investor
For the first time in the Fund’s history, African countries have made significant contributions to their own concessional financing window, signalling a shift towards greater ownership of the continent’s development agenda.
A total of US$182,7 million was pledged by 23 African countries, with 19 contributing for the first time, alongside long-standing regional partners. The figure represents a fivefold increase compared to the previous replenishment.
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“This is not symbolic; it is transformational,” Ould Tah said. “Africa is no longer only a beneficiary of concessional finance. Africa is a co-investor in its own future.”
From aid to investment
ADF-17 marks a structural shift in the use of concessional resources, with partners endorsing a new financial model that allows the Fund to leverage its balance sheet, including the introduction of a market-borrowing option during this cycle.
The model also enables the deployment of innovative instruments, such as hybrid capital, and the strategic use of concessional finance to absorb risk, crowd in private capital, and catalyse investment at scale.
Each dollar invested through the Fund currently mobilises more than US$2,50 in co-financing and private capital, a ratio expected to rise further under the new approach.
“This allows concessional finance to do what it must do best,” Ould Tah said.
“Absorb risk, unlock private investment, and accelerate development at scale.”
New generation of partnerships
ADF-17 also anchors, for the first time, large-scale concessional co-financing partnerships alongside the Fund.
Development finance partners announced major commitments, including up to US$800 million from the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA) and up to US$2 billion from the OPEC Fund for International Development.
The AfDB said the partnerships mark the launch of a new generation of scaled, risk-sharing collaboration, significantly strengthening the Fund’s capacity to deliver transformational projects in challenging environments.
Focus on impact
Resources mobilised under ADF-17 will support 37 low-income and fragile African countries, with priority areas including expanding access to energy, strengthening food systems and food security, investing in human capital, advancing regional integration and trade, and building resilient infrastructure.
Targeted support will continue for countries facing fragility and vulnerability, including through the Transition Support Facility.
Global confidence reaffirmed
The replenishment was concluded at a London pledging session co-hosted by the United Kingdom and Ghana, following a year-long process conducted amid exceptional global uncertainty.
UK minister of State for International Development and Africa, Baroness Jenny Chapman, said the UK was proud to co-host the replenishment alongside Ghana.
“We have a long-standing partnership with the African Development Bank and support its role in driving sustainable and inclusive growth on the continent — for the benefit of the UK and our African partners,” she said.
Ghana’s deputy Finance Minister Thomas Nyarko Amprem described the ADF as a “strategic instrument of the African Development Bank Group to reduce vulnerability on the continent”.
Ould Tah said the success of ADF-17 confirmed strong international confidence in the Fund’s strategic direction and Africa’s capacity to deliver results at scale.
“This replenishment goes beyond aid,” he said. “It is a strategic investment with measurable returns in stability, growth, trade and global resilience.”