The African Development Fund (ADF) has secured a historic $11 billion for its 17th replenishment cycle, marking the largest mobilisation in the Fund’s history and underscoring growing confidence in Africa’s development trajectory despite tightening global aid budgets.
The funding, pledged by 43 partners, represents a 23 per cent increase over the previous replenishment and comes at a time when many development institutions are grappling with fiscal pressure and declining official development assistance.
Officials say the outcome reflects a decisive shift away from traditional aid towards a model anchored in investment, risk-sharing, and scale.
“This is not just a replenishment; it is a turning point. In one of the most difficult global environments for development finance, our partners chose ambition over retrenchment, and investment over inertia,” said Sidi Ould Tah, President of the African Development Bank Group.
In a first for the Fund, 23 African countries contributed directly to ADF-17, signalling a stronger sense of ownership over the continent’s development financing. African governments pledged a combined $182.7 million, a fivefold increase over the previous cycle, with 19 countries contributing for the first time.
“This is not symbolic; this is transformational. Africa is no longer only a beneficiary of concessional finance. Africa is a co-investor in its own future,” said the President.
The move is widely seen as a milestone in reshaping Africa’s relationship with multilateral finance, strengthening credibility and long-term sustainability.
ADF-17 introduces a new financial architecture designed to multiply impact. Partners endorsed reforms that will allow the Fund to leverage its balance sheet, deploy innovative instruments such as hybrid capital, and operationalise a Market Borrowing Option during the cycle.
Under the current structure, each dollar invested through the Fund already mobilises more than $2.50 in co-financing and private capital, a ratio expected to rise as reforms take effect.
“This allows concessional finance to do what it must do best: absorb risk, unlock private investment, and accelerate development at scale,” Tah said.
The replenishment also anchors a new generation of large-scale concessional partnerships. Development finance institutions announced significant commitments alongside the Fund, including up to $800 million from the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA)andup to $2 billion from the OPEC Fund for International Development.
Officials say these partnerships will strengthen the Fund’s ability to deliver transformational projects, particularly in fragile and high-risk environments where private capital is often reluctant to enter.
Resources mobilised under ADF-17 will support 37 low-income and fragile African countries, with priorities including expanding access to energy, strengthening food systems, investing in human capital, advancing regional integration, and building resilient infrastructure.
Targeted assistance will continue for countries facing fragility and vulnerability through instruments such as the Transition Support Facility, which provides tailored financing and technical support.
The pledging session, co-hosted by theUnited Kingdom and Ghana in London, concluded a year-long replenishment process amid geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainty.
Baroness Jenny Chapman, the UK Minister of State for International Development and Africa, said the replenishment reflected the strength of long-standing partnerships.
“The UK is proud to co-host the 17th replenishment of the African Development Fund alongside Ghana and to support the Bank in driving sustainable and inclusive growth on the continent,” she said.
Ghana’s Deputy Minister of Finance, Thomas Nyarko Amprem, described the Fund as “a strategic instrument to reduce vulnerability on the continent.”
Established in 1972, the African Development Fund has provided more than $45 billion in grants, concessional loans, and guarantees to Africa’s lowest-income countries. With its most significant replenishment to date, the Fund is positioning itself at the centre of a new era of African-led, investment-driven development finance.
