AfDB president Sidi Ould Tah on his first 100 days

We meet Sidi Ould Tah at the end of a successful week as the new president of the African Development Bank (AfDB). During our conversation, he appeared relaxed and at ease in his new surroundings, putting paid to the notion that the softly spoken Mauritanian, who has tended to eschew the limelight, would struggle under the constant, public-facing spotlight that comes with his leadership of Africa's premier development institution.

Our meeting came when he had been in office for a shade over 100 days. He had good reason to feel pleased with how things are going - he and his team had just landed a record pledge of $11bn for the 17th replenishment of the African Development Fund (ADF), the grant-making and concessional finance arm of the AfDB targeting low-income countries. This replenishment was unprecedented in many ways given the current global political and economic context. Nineteen new African countries made commitments, showing that Africans need to determine their own future.

All the prognosis before the ADF meeting in London in December was that donors were tightening belts and that the bank would do very well if it could persuade them to match the last replenishment, three years ago, when they raised $8.9bn.

In the run-up to the meeting, the Bank had clearly and eloquently laid out why a well-funded ADF was essential, not only to stabilise some of Africa's more fragile and low-income states but also to take the heat off the pressure to emigrate to the West that has become such a potent political issue.

The ADF funding campaign had also accounted, in detail, how the organisation had deployed its funds and the generally positive outcomes that had ensued. Tah himself had encouraged donors to think of the funding not as aid, but as a partnership in the future of the continent; and he had also made it very clear that he expected the continent itself to contribute to the funding and to find innovative ways to raise funding thresholds.

His approach clearly made a profound impression. For the first time in the Fund's history, 23 African countries made contributions to their own concessional financing window: $182.7m was pledged by African countries, 19 of which were contributing for the first time, alongside long-standing regional contributors. This represents a five-fold increase in African contributions compared to the previous replenishment.

"This is not symbolic," Tah had remarked. "This is transformational. Africa is no longer only a beneficiary of concessional finance. Africa is a co-investor in its own future."

He described this achievement as "a turning point" when, in one of the most difficult global environments for development finance, "our partners chose ambition over retrenchment, and investment over inertia." That perhaps best sums up his approach to solving problems: listen and learn; identify the issues; convince and aggregate support; deliver; then move on.

Cogitating on the scale of the ADF's 17th replenishment, he says the outcome provides several messages. "The first message is that in spite of the tight fiscal space and the competing priorities of our donor countries, they have chosen to increase their support to Africa.

"The second message is that African countries are also today conscious of the importance of their contribution to the funding of this instrument, which is key for 37 low-income and fragile states."

This achievement, he also acknowledged, demonstrated the trust and credibility that partners have in the bank, and this can be attributed to the work of his predecessors.

Asked about his first few months in office, he said "I was mainly in a listening mood. I have a clearer idea now [than] when I was just a candidate [due to] what I have gathered from various stakeholders during this period."

In terms of reforming the bank, his board will expect him to present a clear set of ideas when they meet in Brazzaville in May for the Annual Meetings.

Tah is a veteran of finance. He has been Minister of Economy and Finance in his native Mauritania; and was the successful head of the Arab Bank for Development in Africa (BADEA) before joining the race to replace Akinwumi Adesina at the AfDB.

He appears to enjoy the technical aspects of finance and being more innovative is definitely on the agenda - to be able to unlock more capital for development. The Bank will in some cases take the lead, and in others act as a wholesale bank to empower other development finance institutions (DFIs) and to crowd in private capital.

Cardinal points

Tah's campaign for the post was built around four cardinal points in transforming the Bank's to be a more agile and responsive development partner for the continent. These were: mobilising capital at scale; reforming financial systems to strengthen Africa's global agency; harnessing the continent's demographic dividend as a source of economic power; and building resilient infrastructure while accelerating value addition across key sectors of African economies.

"Today I am more convinced about the four cardinal points than ever before," he says. "Every meeting I had, every activity I have attended, and every discussion I had, confirmed to me that the four cardinal points are key for the Bank and for Africa."

Now that he is in the belly of the beast, he still believes that his four points are achievable "I'm really confident that the shareholders are very keen to see the bank transform itself to cope with the changes taking place not only in Africa but around the world. So I don't see any obstacles to the bank going on a new trajectory and reforming itself."

Mobilising resources at scale is an absolute necessity for a continent with a $150bn gap in infrastructure investment alone. "Everywhere you will hear the same complaint about lack of resources, whether it is the private sector or with governments," he says.

With rising debt burdens and tighter global financial constraints, Africa's funding needs are only going to increase and AfDB, as its key financial institution, will have to step further into the breach - which means it will have to mobilise capital at scale and to do so, will need to think creatively for new sources of funding.

As part of this strategy, he has put together a team to consult with private sector as well as pension funds and the whole financial community to see how to develop a key roadmap for greater coordination and harmonisation.

On the second cardinal point, reforming financial systems to strengthen Africa's global agency, Tah says "it is clear that fragmentation is really impeding the development of the continent. And there is a clear need for African financial institutions to work together, to strengthen each other, and to agree on very clear division of labour instead of competition. And also to develop their activities in a very concerted manner, particularly acting on the principle of subsidiarity".

The latter point, he explains, means that national and regional banks must focus on what they do, while the AfDB's role will be to empower the entire ecosystem and provide them with the support they need.

The AfDB, he promises, will work with pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and private equity firms to unlock capital for investment in the continent. Already, he points out, the Bank's Africa Co-Guarantee Platform is helping to make more investments available to the continent and also attract global capital.

The ultimate aim, he says, is for African financial institutions to pool their resources in service of a common cause. "We need harmonisation and we need self-reliance. We also need mutual reliance, such that any African institution should be comfortable with what the AfDB has assessed and the conclusions it has reached."

He adds: "we are very keen to work together as an African financial system within the new African financial architecture to harmonise our processes and to establish this type of mutual reliance agreement."

The third cardinal point, Africa's demographic dividend, is based on the continent's median age of 19 and its position as the only continent with a higher-than-replacement fertility rate. By 2050 Africa's workforce will be larger than those of India and China combined; but as experts point out, this can be a boon - or not.

"These figures show that there is an urgency to provide jobs for the youth and this is why this cardinal point is relevant not only for the African Development Bank, but also for all those who are interested in this development of the continent," he notes.

"Africa can really be a great asset in the development of new technology," he says. To realise this, the bank is already investing in digital infrastructure while also helping develop the skills needed for digital transformation and the adoption of artificial intelligence across the continent.

The fourth cardinal point - resilient infrastructure and value addition -addresses Africa's stubborn structural bottlenecks. He stresses that value addition requires more than extraction: it demands energy at scale, transport corridors and integrated investment that allows processing and industrial activity to take place on the continent.

Signals from funding outcome

There are clear indications that Tah's working agenda is finding favour with the Bank's shareholders and stakeholders. The successful replenishment of the ADF was only one of several positive outcomes.

Among others, the bank was able to secure a change to the fund's charter, which will allow it to procure finance from the capital markets - an important shift in the context of possible funding gaps if the US, until now one of the Fund's major backers, decides to withdraw its support.

Along this axis, the bank received considerable support from the OPEC Fund ($2bn) and Tah's old employer, BADEA, which contributed $800m in the ADF replenishment. This is part of a broader effort to diversify the bank's funding sources and partnerships. Similar discussions are under way with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, for example.

"We need all development banks and partners who are willing to support Africa to work together with the AfDB. And if we were able, against each dollar of ADF or AfDB funds, to bring $4 to $10 from other partners - which is our aim - that would definitely contribute to bridging the development financing gap in the continent."

Just as importantly, he notes, is what it says about the role of the private sector. "We are all aware that without the private sector, we would not be in a position to bridge the gap, because overseas development assistance is not enough to cover it. So the private sector is key for the development of the continent. And we have seen a great mobilisation around that at this summit."

African Development Bank Group President Dr. Sidi Ould Tah, met with the CEO Julia Hoggett to discuss partnership and how private capital can support the African Development Fund's mission, in London.

Another key message from the Replenishment Summit, Tah says, is the value of working together. That the event was held on the premises of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is itself, he argues, a symbol of multilateral development banks (MDBs) working together and coordinating their efforts in support of the continent.

"When we are together, we can deliver much more than the sum of what we can deliver if we are working separately," he says.

In light of the fact that multilateralism has come under threat and global institutions have been weakened, Tah acknowledges that we are likely to see a more "turbulent world with high volatility". But where others see doom and gloom, Tah sees people adapting and finding new ways to work together. "It is clear to me that there is a consensus around the need for all of us to work together to deliver on our mandate. And this cannot be the work of a group of countries or a group of institutions, but rather a coalition of players."

New focus on and in Africa

In this new era, Tah says, Africa is rightfully getting renewed attention, not least of all from Africans and African institutions themselves. "If you look at the initiatives launched by African institutions, including the AfDB, you will see that there is a new vision for Africa by Africans themselves."

Along with this new approach has come greater innovation in delivery of services, in products and partnerships, Tah adds. "With a new African financial architecture, we will see a really big transformation in the African financial landscape."

Tah says the Bank will have a three-pronged approach to resource mobilisation. "First, the bank will work to increase the volume of resources it will mobilise. Second, we will work with more partners globally to bring more resources to the continent. And third, we will work with all the players in the African financial system to mobilise African domestic resources."

It will also, he assures us, continue to focus on energy, education, health and agriculture, among other key sectors that have attracted the bank's attention. "But we will focus much more on increasing productivity, local processing of African commodities and cross-border trade in African products," he adds.

As we being to wind up our interview, Tah says: "In spite of the volatility and the headwinds that we are seeing, I am quite confident that the continent is on the right trajectory," he says, adding that he expects Africa to make "a good leap in the coming years".

Is he enjoying it? He appears to be even, stating that it's not a job but rather a mission. The gruelling travel schedule, he admits, has meant that he has not spent as much time in Abidjan, the Bank's headquarters, as he would have liked; but that is the nature of the job. The Bank in many respects is an ambassador for the whole continent.

What about the Bank - which has in the past had a reputation for being slow, bureaucratic and clunky? The reputation he quotes is that of an institution that is seen by its partners as credible and the partner of choice to deploy capital at scale.

And, having come to know the institution a little bit better, he says the Bank's main asset may be, to financiers, its AAA credit rating; but, having consulted far and wide, he sees its main asset as its people first and foremost - with a very large talent pool of brilliant people.

His job will be to unleash this talent for new ideas and faster execution. We need to move from showmanship to stewardship. The results and success of the Bank will matter for the whole continent. The next few months leading up to the Annual Meetings in May will be critical so that we can move from words to action.