The Long-Term Finance Country Diagnostics _ ALTFI
The Long-Term Finance (LTF) Initiative is a joint project between the African Development Bank (AfDB), the Financial Sector Deepening Trust for Africa (FSDA), the German Cooperation (BMZ, implemented by GIZ), and the Making Finance Work for Africa (MFW4A) Partnership. Launched in 2017, the initiative is hosted at the AfDB in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire and is coordinated by the Macroeconomic Policy, Forecasting & Research (ECMR) Department. The internal AfDB team comprises of ECMR, the Statistics Department (ECST), and the Private Sector Development Department (PIFD). The objective of the initiative is to harness the intermediation of LTF in Africa to strengthen the availability of finance in the infrastructure, housing, and enterprise sectors.
The LTF initiative has two components: (i) the Database and Scoreboard; and (ii) the country diagnostics. The purpose of the Database and Scoreboard is to enhance transparency about LTF in Africa and inform policy makers, the private sector, and donors about the availability of LTF across Africa. The country diagnostics provide in-depth analysis of LTF markets in individual jurisdictions. The LTF team finalized the Cote d’Ivoire’s country-diagnostic report, which was launched on February 14, 2020 with H.E. Adama Coulibaly, Côte d’Ivoire’s Minister of Economy and Finance opening the event. The findings of the country report were well received and provided an opportunity for the Government of Côte d’Ivoire and its partners to prioritize the implementation of the report’s recommendations with a view to enhancing the availability of long-term finance in Cote d’Ivoire.
The second pilot country selected for the LTF diagnostics was Ghana. The exercise began in the fourth quarter of 2019 with a fact-finding mission to Accra followed by a presentation of the findings and recommendations to select members of the Ghanian ministry of finance and economics in March 2020. Following the review of the Ghana country diagnostic report by the LTF partners, including the AfDB with clearance by the ECMR director obtained in June 2021, the Ghana LTF country diagnostic report was finalized in July 2021. Discussions with the Government of Ghana regarding an official launch and follow-up implementation of the recommendations have been repeatedly delayed for a number of reasons, including the formation of a new cabinet following the presidential elections and the recent downgrade of Ghana’s credit rating. As a result, the LTF team agreed to do a silent launch of the report on its website with MFW4A sharing the final version in its newsletter so that the report can reach a wider audience.
The third pilot LTF country diagnostics in Ethiopia started in August 2020 and is underway with four technical notes in the areas of housing finance, enterprise finance, infrastructure finance, and macro banking & capital markets drafted. This pilot is expected to be completed in early 2023.