Good day everyone,
Chair of the AAAG, distinguished Accountants-General from across our great continent, excellencies, colleagues.
Let me start by commending the outgoing Chair, in-coming Chairman, Babatunde Ogunyemi and CEO, Fredrick Riaga, for the leadership displayed today.
What an honour to be here in Accra!
I stand before you, not just as an entrepreneur, but also as a firm believer in Africa’s potential. My belief is shaped by Africapitalism: my conviction that the private sector, forging a strong collaboration with the public sector, must play a key role in Africa’s transformation.
I have withnessed this firsthand, and today, I want to share what we’ve learnt.
How we can transform Africa – by Africans – for Africans.
Let me begin bluntly.
Africa is not just a continent of potential.
Africa is a continent of urgency.
The time for talk is over; this is the moment for action.
We face a $100 billion annual infrastructure gap. Africa needs $170 billion annually for infrstructure. We are short by over $100 billion every year. But the capital exists.
We are not poor. We are a continent awash with capital.
As the UBA Whitepaper launched last month shows:
Over $4 trillion sits on this continent in African pensions funds, sovereign funds, private savings.
Diaspora remittances exceeds $100 billion – bigger than foreign aid, and FDI combined.
Our problem is not money – it is trust.
Trust is built through predictability, transparency and partnership.
And that’s where YOU come in.
You—Africa’s financial stewards—hold the key to unlocking investment, building confidence, creating the Africa we dream of.
Every report you publish, standard you enforce, Treasury Single Account you strengthen—you build the foundations for prosperity.
Long-term investors ask three things:
- Will contracts be honoured?
- Are fiscal rules stable?
- Are returns predictable?
Thanks to YOU, the answer can be – and must be – yes.
You can make Africa investable.
The world is changing. The old ways are not enough.
Today, you must become the vanguard of transformation:
Lead digitalisation. Let Africa’s financial infrastructure leapfrog the world.
Build data power—make your ministries centres of excellence.
Champion talent. Keep our best minds here, innovating for us—not for others.
Insist on iron discipline in expenditure. Every naira, every cedi, every shilling must deliver impact.
Root your work in ethics. Trust is the mother of capital.
Excellence in public finance is not a luxury. It is Africa’s competitive edge.
Look at Botswana. At Mauritius. At Rwanda. They have shown that transparency is not just good practice; it is good business.
My own journey at UBA and Transcorp proves it: when you believe in Africa and invest for the long term, you change millions of lives.
That is what I call Africapitalism in practice.
The United Bank for Africa is a classic case study. We went from a national bank, to a global bank serving over 50 million customers across Africa, Europe, America and the Gulf. Over 40,000 jobs created. Because we invested long-term. Because we believed in Africa.
At Transcorp Group, we investment in the power generation sector when others said it was too risky. Today, we’re lighting up homes and businesses across Nigeria and beyond. We produce 15% of Nigeria’s power generation.
Through the Tony Elumelu Foundation, our philanthropy, we have backed 24,00 young entrepreneurs across all 54 African countries, with more than $100 million in non-refundable seed capital. 330 of them are from Ghana.
Our entrepreneurs have collectively created over 1.5 million jobs and generated over $4.2 billion in revenue.
Africapitalism is the private sector taking responsibility for Africa’s development. Not an Africa built by charity, but a continent built by its own ideas, its own entrepreneurs, and its own systems.
But none of this happens without the government as an effective partner.
Just last month, at the World Bank-IMF Annual Meetings, we launched the UBA Whitepaper on Africa’s Financial Future, and I want to share key insights on driving sustainable development.
- First: A Strategic African anchor investment can attract international capital at ratios of 10-to-1 or even 20-to-1. When Africa’s institutions commit capital first-backed by credible public financial management—global investors follow. Your fiscal discipline makes this possible.
- Second: We must move from aid dependency to investment highways. We’re now in the era of execution. But execution requires bankable projects. Projects with clear financial returns. Projects backed by governments that pay on time and honour contracts. That is your mandate and your power.
- Third: Africa’s $3.4 trillion single market under AfCFTA is only unlocked through working financial infrastructure.
Trade facilitation. Digital payment systems. Transparent sustoms procedures. Cross-border settment mechanism. These aren’t banking issues. They’re public financial management issues.
But only if YOU, the public finance leaders, build the pipes: the payment systems, the customs, the infrastructure for trade.
You control Africa’s plumbing. When you build trust and discipline, investment flows and prosperity follows.
So, let me challenge you:
- This is your moment. The era of potential is over. The era of execution is here.
- We have capital.
- We have talent – in government, in business – in our young entrepreneurs.
- We have markets.
- We have you.
Now, let’s build the connective tissue: transparent, credible, fearless public finance.
The Africa of tomorrow will be built by partnerships—government and provate sector—with trust as foundation, transparency as a non negotiable, and shared prosperity as our common goal.
Thank you for your service.
Thank you for your leadership.
Let’s seize this moment. Let’s build Africa’s future—together.
Thank you.
TOE
