Former President Nana Akufo-Addo has proposed that African countries deposit 30 per cent of their sovereign reserves with multilateral institutions on the continent.   

The proposal, he said, was to better position development finance institutions like the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) and the African Development Bank (AfDB) to meet the development financing needs of the continent.   

This is a reechoing of a proposal he made to the African Union (AU) in his previous position as the President of Ghana and champion of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which Secretariat is hosted by Ghana.   

Speaking during a conversation among some former Heads of States of Africa at the 2025 Afreximbank Annual Meetings in Nigeria on Friday, June 27, he noted that such a move would significantly transform Africa’s financial landscape.   

He argued that African nations were currently keeping their reserves in foreign banks, sometimes earning negative interest rates at a time that they were struggling to fund their development projects.   

“The institutions that we need to prepare our development are not in our hands.” Nana Akufo-Addo said, emphasising that without the continent controlling its financial institutions, it could not effectively finance its development sustainably.   

He called for collaborative efforts to strengthen Afreximbank and AfDB, saying, “we have to put our mouth where our thoughts are. Let’s make the decisions that will enable us to resolve our problems. We can’t do it just by talking.”   

He bemoaned the non-operationalisation of the proposed African Central Bank, which has been on the table last 20 years, despite its potential to fund Africa’s development by synchronizing regional banking industries and unions.   

He called for renewed effort to making African Central Bank, African Investment Bank and African Monetary Fund effective to contribute to the financial independence and acceleration of the continent’s development.    

On lending credit to African financial institutions, he cited Afreximbank’s support for Ghana, noting how the institution provided US$750 million when the country could not access global capital markets.