African heads of state gather in Dakar, Senegal for crucial talks

DAKAR - Rwandan President Paul Kagame is among the continental heads of state attending the second Dakar Financing Summit for Africa’s Infrastructure Development, taking place from February 1 to 3, in Senegal.

Under the theme: “Maintaining the momentum towards world-class infrastructure in Africa", the summit seeks to catalyze public, private, and blended funding for identified priority infrastructure regional projects.

The forum also aims at securing funding for regional infrastructure projects under the Program for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA), an AUDA-NEPAD initiative.

The Head of State, who is also the Chairperson of the AUDA-NEPAD Heads of State and Government Orientation Committee, is expected to take part in a presidential roundtable alongside his host and African Union Chair, President Macky Sall of Senegal, President Faure Gnassignbé of Togo, African Union Commission Chair, Moussa Faki Mahamat, among others.

The Summit takes place as the continent continues to face infrastructure gaps. At present, 600 million people on the continent do not have access to electricity while only 43 percent of Africans were connected to the internet at the end of 2021.

The development of infrastructure is an important driver of progress. As it stands, the lack of reliable infrastructure in energy, telecommunications, and transport networks has a negative effect on growth and business productivity in Africa.

A recent World Bank report showed that the poor state of infrastructure in many parts of Africa reduces national economic growth by two percentage points each year and causes business productivity to decline by up to 40 percent.

The second Dakar Summit highlights the need to scale up Africa’s financial resource mobilization and provides a unique high-level platform to convene and engage African leaders, businesses, regulators, and policymakers on the challenges and opportunities of infrastructure projects across the continent.

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