By Ajong Mbapndah L
Washington, DC–The Africa @ World Bank–IMF Annual Meetings opened on 14th October, 2025, with a powerful, clear-eyed appeal to the global community: it’s time to rethink how the world engages with Africa’s growth story. Taking the podium before a room filled with African policymakers, economists, business leaders, and international partners, Dr. Denis Foretia, Executive Chairman of the Nkafu Policy Institute, set the tone with a speech that was both deeply human and strategically precise.
Dr. Foretia didn’t begin with charts or figures. Instead, he began with people—the faces behind Africa’s statistics. His voice carried both conviction and compassion as he spoke about the kind of resilience that too often substitutes for functioning systems. He painted vivid portraits of ordinary Africans whose daily struggles and quiet innovations reveal the continent’s potential far better than any report could.
There was Amina, a midwife in Northern Nigeria, who kept delivering babies safely even when the lights went out and the old generator coughed to a stop. She organized a WhatsApp triage group with other nurses, pooled savings for a solar kit, and mapped the few drivers willing to make night runs to her clinic. “She shouldn’t have to design her own power and transport system just to save lives,” Dr. Foretia said, “but she does, and because she does, more mothers live.” Her story, he added, is not about charity. It’s about human capital, the kind that drives economies from the ground up.
Then came Kofi, the young logistics entrepreneur connecting Accra to Abidjan. He started with three bikes and a mobile app, convinced that faster delivery meant stronger small businesses. But fluctuating currencies, unreliable data costs, and uneven rules along borders tested his determination. Instead of folding, he adapted, partnering with a women’s cooperative to expand. “What entrepreneurs like Kofi want isn’t a miracle,” Dr. Foretia explained. “They want predictable rules, affordable data, and power that stays on. That’s what turns survival into scale.”
And then there was Madame Essama, a poultry farmer in Cameroon who tried, twice, to formalize her business, only to hit the same wall: paperwork, overlapping inspections, and high upfront taxes that suffocate small enterprises before they even begin. She keeps her books by hand and pays her workers in cash, not by choice but by necessity. “Her resilience,” Dr. Foretia said softly, “is not a policy, it’s a coping strategy.”
Through these stories, the speech moved from the personal to the political. Each account reflected a deeper truth: Africa’s economic challenges are not rooted in a lack of effort or innovation, but in an international financing system that too often assumes risk instead of measuring it. “Projects that are viable on their merits become unaffordable at scale,” he said. “The financing must fit the facts, not the stereotypes.”
That line became the heartbeat of his address, a steady reminder that Africa’s future cannot be built on outdated perceptions. The irony, Dr. Foretia pointed out, is that while Africa receives a significant portion of World Bank and IMF financing, Africans themselves are frequently absent from the rooms where those financing decisions are shaped. This forum, he emphasized, exists precisely to change that dynamic, to make sure African voices shape the frameworks that determine their own destinies.
Dr. Foretia then laid out three guiding propositions for the day. The first: jobs must become the true measure of policy success. Approving projects and disbursing funds is necessary but insufficient. “Every policy, every program,” he said, “should be judged by the number and quality of jobs it creates, jobs that pay fairly, offer dignity, and open a path forward.”
The second: human capital is the growth engine, not an accessory. Too often, health and education are treated as social programs rather than economic imperatives. “When girls finish school, when mothers survive childbirth, when young people gain skills employers actually need,” he argued, “the return isn’t just social, it’s macroeconomic.”
And the third: Africa’s market power grows when its rules align. Policy fragmentation, he warned, kills scale. From cross-border payments to logistics standards and data governance, harmonizing rules across countries could unlock enormous growth. “For Kofi and his riders,” he noted, “interoperability isn’t a buzzword, it’s the difference between expansion and exhaustion.”
Returning to the personal, Dr. Foretia brought his stories full circle. “Amina cannot invoice hope,” he said. “She needs electricity that works, roads that last, medicine that arrives on time, and a salary that lands when due. Kofi cannot scale on grit alone. He needs rules that make sense and data that doesn’t bankrupt him. And Madame Essama cannot formalize on courage alone. She needs a bridge she can actually cross—clear steps, digital processes, and fair taxes that grow with her business.”
As he closed, Dr. Foretia turned from challenge to collaboration. The Nkafu Policy Institute, he said, exists to “accelerate Africa’s economic transformation through evidence-informed policymaking.” He thanked the African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD), Afrobarometer, Merckshire, and Germany’s BMZ through GIZ for their partnership.
Then, with the same calm intensity that marked his opening, he left the audience with a charge: “Let’s be ambitious in our outcomes, specific in our actions, and generous in our partnerships. Because if we do that, we won’t just discuss Africa’s future, we’ll help design it.”
The applause that followed was less ceremonial than it was genuine. Dr. Foretia’s message landed with rare clarity: Africa’s story is not one of need, but of agency. The facts are there, waiting to be matched with the financing, and this time, the financing must fit the facts.
Taking place at the Capital Hilton in Washington,DC , the maiden edition of Africa@World Bank Annual Meetings event. The high-level symposium convenes African policymakers, economists, business leaders, researchers, and development partners. The heavily attended gathering offers a strategic platform for Franck dialogue on Africa’s most pressing economic challenges while harnessing the continents’ vast potential for transforming growth.
