Africa Must Finance More of Its Development from Within Amid Mounting Global Uncertainty: ECA Executive Secretary

Addis Ababa, July 28, 2026 (ENA) — Africa can no longer rely indefinitely on external financing to transform its economies, making stronger domestic resource mobilization essential to achieving sustainable development and accelerating the continent's economic transformation, Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Claver Gatete, said.

Speaking at the opening of the 49th Ordinary Session of the Executive Council of the African Union (AU) in Addis Ababa, Gatete said the continent is gathering at a time of unprecedented global uncertainty marked by subdued economic growth, geopolitical fragmentation, trade tensions, climate shocks, declining development finance and rising debt-servicing costs.

"Given the present realities, it is clear that Africa cannot rely indefinitely on external financing to transform its economies. Africa must finance more of its development from within," he stressed.

According to the Executive Secretary, the ECA is supporting African countries to strengthen tax administration, digitize revenue systems, combat illicit financial flows, deepen domestic capital markets, mobilize innovative financing mechanisms and reinforce fiscal institutions to finance industrial development.

He added that the Commission is also backing the African Development Bank's new African Financial Architecture for Development initiative, aimed at retaining African savings and investment on the continent while mobilizing long-term financing for infrastructure, industrialization and innovation.

Gatete emphasized that Africa's development challenges are deeply interconnected, requiring integrated solutions that simultaneously advance industrialization, productive capacity, regional integration and resource mobilization to achieve both Agenda 2063 and the Sustainable Development Goals.

Highlighting the significance of the African Union's 2026 theme on water and sanitation, he described water as the foundation of sustainable development, noting that it underpins agriculture, energy, industry, public health, resilient cities and climate adaptation.

He revealed that more than 400 million Africans still lack access to safe drinking water, while over 700 million remain without safely managed sanitation, undermining health, productivity, food security and economic development across the continent.

The Executive Secretary further observed that rainfall is becoming increasingly unpredictable due to climate change, with climate-related shocks already reducing agricultural productivity and costing African economies as much as 5 percent of GDP annually. Meanwhile, nearly 600 million Africans continue to live without access to electricity, limiting productivity, industrialization and competitiveness.

Despite these challenges, Gatete said Africa possesses enormous comparative advantages, including abundant renewable energy resources, the world's youngest population, a market of more than 1.5 billion people under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), and vast reserves of strategic minerals critical for the global energy transition.

To unlock that potential, he called for four priority actions: integrated planning across key sectors, stronger domestic resource mobilization, accelerated implementation of the AfCFTA, and greater investment in digital infrastructure, climate resilience and human capital.

Gatete noted that Africa currently collects only about 16 percent of GDP in tax revenue compared to the OECD average of around 34 percent, while losing nearly 90 billion USD annually through illicit financial flows.

"We cannot continue to lose with one hand what we seek to mobilize with the other," he said, stressing that every dollar lost deprives the continent of resources needed for water, infrastructure, education and industrial transformation.

He also underscored the importance of fully implementing the AfCFTA, saying it could increase intra-African trade by 45 percent by 2045, creating millions of productive jobs for the continent's growing youth population.

Foreign ministers and senior officials from across Africa are convening in Addis Ababa for the 49th Ordinary Session of the AU Executive Council to deliberate on key continental priorities, with water security, sanitation, financing, regional integration and sustainable development high on the agenda.