The African Development Fund (ADF), the concessional financing arm of the African Development Bank Group, has mobilised a historic $11 billion from 43 partners for its 17th replenishment (ADF-17), marking the largest funding round in the Fund’s history amid tight global fiscal conditions and shrinking aid budgets.
The amount represents a 23 percent increase over the previous replenishment and reflects renewed confidence in Africa’s development prospects, the Bank’s Group leadership, and a shift towards an investment-led, risk-sharing development model.
“This is not just a replenishment; it is a turning point,” Dr Sidi Ould Tah, President of the African Development Bank Group, said. “In one of the most challenging global environments for development finance, our partners chose ambition over retrenchment and investment over inertia.”
For the first time since the Fund’s establishment, African countries made significant contributions to their own concessional financing window.
Twenty-three African nations pledged a total of $182.7 million, with 19 contributing for the first time, alongside long-standing regional contributors.
The contributions represent a five-fold increase compared to the previous replenishment.
“This is not symbolic; it is transformational,” Dr Ould Tah said. “Africa is no longer only a beneficiary of concessional finance. Africa is a co-investor in its own future.”
ADF-17 introduces a structural shift in the deployment of concessional resources. Partners endorsed a new financial framework that allows the Fund to leverage its balance sheet, operationalise a Market Borrowing Option, deploy hybrid capital, and use concessional finance strategically to absorb risk and crowd in private capital.
Currently, every dollar invested through the Fund unlocks more than $2.50 in co-financing and private investment, a ratio expected to improve under the new model.
The replenishment also secures large-scale concessional co-financing partnerships, including commitments of up to $800 million from the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA) and up to $2 billion from the OPEC Fund for International Development.
These partnerships are expected to strengthen the Fund’s capacity to deliver transformational projects, particularly in fragile and high-risk environments.
Resources mobilized under ADF-17 will support 37 low-income and fragile African countries, with priority areas including energy access, food security, human capital development, regional integration, and climate-resilient infrastructure.
Targeted assistance will continue for countries facing fragility through the Transition Support Facility.
The replenishment process concluded at a pledging session in London, co-hosted by the United Kingdom and Ghana, after a year-long engagement with partners.
Baroness Jenny Chapman, UK Minister of State for International Development and Africa, said the UK was proud to co-host the replenishment, noting its long-standing partnership with the African Development Bank in promoting sustainable and inclusive growth.
Mr Thomas Nyarko Ampem, Ghana’s Deputy Minister of Finance, described the African Development Fund as “a strategic instrument to reduce vulnerability across the continent.”
Dr Ould Tah said the replenishment went beyond traditional aid, describing it as “a strategic investment with measurable returns in stability, growth, trade, and global resilience.”
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 and remains a cornerstone of African-led multilateral development finance.
