ALTFI workshop zambia

2022 Africa Long-Term Finance Workshop: “Financing Africa sustainable development in times of global headwinds”

Nov 28, 2022 - Nov 29, 2022 | Lusaka, Zambia

The Africa Long-Term Finance Initiative (ALTFI) organized a workshop on “Financing Africa sustainable development in times of global headwinds” from November 28 - 29th, in Lusaka, Zambia.

The workshop was hosted by the COMESA Secretariat on the theme: “Financing Africa sustainable development in times of global headwinds” and brought together about 50 representatives, mostly from central banks, securities exchanges commissions (SEC) and partner organizations such as TCX Fund, ISDA, IFC and FSDA, alongside the MFW4A and AFDB. The discussions acknowledged the imperative of unlocking to the potential of LTF in Africa in order to increase local currency financing of key socio-economic sectors, such as housing, power, water and sanitation, roads, and other social infrastructure, and also to support SMEs. Rising interest rates on international markets further strengthen the case for deepening domestic financial markets to reduce exposure to foreign currency risks and the threat of unsustainable debt levels.

This Initiative is a joint effort of the African Development Bank (AfDB), the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, Financial Sector Deepening Africa (FSD Africa) and Making Finance Work for Africa (MFW4A) to improve intermediation of LTF in Africa by strengthening knowledge generation. This is accomplished through two mutually reinforcing activities: (1) improved understanding of LTF markets in Africa by creating a LTF database and scoreboard providing comparative indicators of the level of development of LTF markets in Africa; and (2) implementation of country diagnostics and cross-fertilization of country experiences as regards policy reforms and approaches to develop LTF markets.

The LTF database and scoreboard rely on data collection from a network of Central Banks Liaison Officers. Improving on the quality of the data is key and the regular organization of capacity building and data validation workshops are critical to ensuring a higher LTF intermediation in Africa. Such events provide the platform to speed up the data collection process and to further hone the data collection skills of the Liaison Officers. 

The workshop achieved the following:

  • Complete validation of the round of data collection FY2020, launch FY 2021 and lay the groundwork for 2022 data collection;
  • Engage with Liaison Officers to enhance reliability, timeliness and accuracy of data;
  • Collect feedback on new data survey templates;
  • Initiate a dialogue with governments and financial sector stakeholder on the importance of long-term finance and the work being delivered by the Initiative;
  • Discuss the new scope and garner support from existing and new members or partners of the Initiative.

Participants included representatives from the host country, Initiative member organisations, all Liaison Officers appointed by their Central Bank Governors, Ministries of Finance and representatives of national or sub-region organizations directly involved with collecting data on domestic financial markets.

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