Workshop Report: “Financing Africa Sustainable Development in times of Global Headwinds”

The Africa Long-Term Finance Initiative, in collaboration with its partners, hosted a three-day workshop on “Financing Africa sustainable development in times of global headwinds” from November 28 - 30th, in Lusaka, Zambia.
The workshop was hosted by the COMESA Secretariat and brought together about 70 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.
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.