AfDB and Germany Deepen Partnership on Africa's Development

Germany has adopted a similar direction through its Shaping the Future Together Globally reform strategy, introduced in January 2026.

The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) and Germany are expanding their long-standing partnership by aligning major reforms designed to improve the way development finance supports economic growth across Africa. Both sides are working toward financing systems that attract more investment, strengthen institutions and create stronger opportunities for sustainable development.

The Bank's New African Financial Architecture for Development (NAFAD), endorsed through the Abidjan Consensus in April 2026, provides a roadmap for mobilising capital more effectively, improving risk-sharing mechanisms and developing investment-ready projects on a larger scale. The initiative seeks to improve access to financing, reinforce financial systems and support industrialisation throughout the continent.

Germany has adopted a similar direction through its Shaping the Future Together Globally reform strategy, introduced in January 2026. The plan places greater emphasis on targeted financing, stronger private sector participation and development approaches that encourage local value creation while reinforcing multilateral institutions and financial systems.

Germany delivers its development cooperation through the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, working alongside KfW Development Bank, the German development agency GIZ and Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft (DEG), which focuses on private sector investment.

Energy investment becomes a major area of cooperation

Energy has emerged as one of the strongest examples of the growing partnership. Germany is a leading contributor to Mission 300, the joint initiative launched by the African Development Bank Group and the World Bank Group to provide electricity access to 300 million people across Africa by 2030. Since 2021, Germany has contributed €234 million to the Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA), whose portfolio now includes 54 operations across 46 countries, with more than $405 million committed to projects.

Germany is also a founding partner of the Alliance for Green Infrastructure in Africa, which is jointly managed by the African Development Bank Group and Africa50. In addition, the country has committed €4 billion to African energy projects through 2030, reflecting a growing focus on coordinated investment platforms capable of supporting large-scale infrastructure development. These initiatives are intended to expand reliable energy access while supporting economic growth and the transition to cleaner energy systems across the continent.

Long-standing partnership supports investment and growth

The partnership also extends beyond infrastructure into private sector development and investment reform. Germany established the Compact with Africa, an initiative that seeks to improve investment conditions and attract private capital to participating countries. Between 2020 and 2024, the African Development Bank Group provided more than $14 billion in support to Compact with Africa countries while helping mobilise additional private financing through instruments such as partial credit guarantees.

Germany has maintained a close relationship with the African Development Bank Group for more than four decades. It became a member of the Bank in 1983 and has contributed to the African Development Fund (ADF), the Bank's concessional lending arm, since 1973. The country is currently the second-largest contributor to the Fund's seventeenth replenishment (ADF-17), pledging €607.572 million, and ranks as the third-largest non-regional shareholder in the Bank Group.

As both partners continue implementing their respective reform agendas, the African Development Bank Group and Germany say they are working to build more coordinated financing systems that connect investment, institutional capacity and development delivery, helping African countries accelerate economic transformation and attract greater long-term investment.