A new shield for central banks

It has put forward a number of proposals to uplift Africa, such as the projected pipeline for ADF-12, which already has 336 national and multinational projects valued at $18 billion, says its leader, Donald Kaberuka.

The demand has been fuelled mainly by infrastructure gaps, particularly energy, the need for regional integration and investment in climate change adaptation.

Another suggestion by the Cape Town meeting is that countries in Africa should graduate, as Cape Verde has done, to less dependence on aid.

The meeting welcomed the G20 Pittsburgh commitments, whereby Canada proposed an extra $2.8 billion in loan guarantees to AfDB.