Yaoundé Breakthrough: Central Africa builds financial bridge and adopts 'common language' to accelerate economic diversification funding

Yaoundé, 26 November 2025 (ECA) - At the Regional Conference on Sustainable Financing Mobilization convened in Yaoundé on 26-27 November, Central African stakeholders took a decisive step toward mobilizing sustainable financing by adopting a common language and a shared methodology to accelerate the region's economic transformation. They agreed to approach development finance not as isolated initiatives, but as a structured, coordinated and jointly owned process.

Organized by the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), in partnership with Member States, CEMAC, and international financial institutions-including the World Bank, the African Development Bank and BDEAC- the Conference gathered government representatives, technical experts, the private sector, UN agencies and development partners.

The opening day, dedicated to capacity development, highlighted the core challenge: Central Africa's bottleneck is not the lack of financing opportunities, but the insufficient structuring of projects.

The discussions underscored that financing is constrained not by the availability of funds, but by the region's limited mastery of the technical and methodological standards required by financiers. This structural gap continues to slow down the mobilization of sustainable financing for infrastructure, industrialization and the green/blue transition.

In his opening statement, the representative of the Minister of Economy, Planning and Regional Development of Cameroon stressed the importance of the initiative, noting:

"This gathering aims to identify sustainable financing mechanisms for regional bankable projects and to shape multi-stakeholder alliances that can accelerate Central Africa's economic transformation."

Structuring, Aligning, Accelerating

The key takeaway from the capacity-building sessions was unequivocal: financing for structural transformation must be structured. Participants-from government institutions, regional economic communities, UN agencies and international financial institutions-recognized that project development requires professional engineering, methodological rigor, and strong internal systems. This includes: clear logical frameworks and objectives, demonstration of expected impacts, alignment with national strategies, robust risk assessments, environmental and social compliance, solid economic and climate justifications. These elements determine a project's bankability and competitiveness.

Through technical sessions, participants deepened their understanding of both the bankability criteria set by financiers (World Bank, AfDB, Afreximbank, EU, Congo Basin Blue Fund) and the financial instruments available, including guarantees, blended finance and green/blue financing. Member States also reaffirmed the need to institutionalize project-structuring capacities across national systems.

As noted by Soumaya Iraqui, Chief of the Economic Diversification Section at ECA's Subregional Office for Central Africa: "Better structured projects are better positioned-and tomorrow, better financed."

She emphasized the need for permanent institutional support and peer-learning systems to improve project quality and consistency.

Participants also highlighted the urgency for countries to diversify their financing sources, crowd in private capital, and align national priorities with sustainable financial instruments. This is essential for strengthening financial resilience, reducing exposure to external shocks and securing long-term financing for the productive sector.

Reinventing Development Finance

Reaffirming ECA's leadership role in advancing structural transformation, Jean Luc Mastaki, Director of the ECA Subregional Office for Central Africa, stated: "The Yaoundé meeting is the first concrete regional translation of the commitments made at the Seville Summit. Today, we built methodological bridges between project owners and financiers. Our collective responsibility is to turn Congo Basin resources into engines of industrialization and jobs."

This commitment signals a shift toward a new financing paradigm-one focused not only on mobilizing resources, but on strengthening the region's capacity to produce credible, technically sound and standards-aligned projects.

The High-Level Regional Political Dialogue held on 27 November capitalized on the technical gains of the previous day to produce concrete policy commitments. In a context of declining official development assistance, ECA is emerging as a key convener to unlock Central Africa's financing potential.

The conclusions underline a central message: the region's future financial competitiveness will depend less on access to existing funding windows, and more on its collective ability to demonstrate quality, coherence and credibility in its projects.

Economic transformation will therefore depend as much on mastering global standards as on maintaining strategic vision.

Media Queries
Zacharie Roger MBARGA - Communications Officer
United Nations Economic Commission for Africa
637, rue 3.069, Quartier du Lac, Yaoundé, Cameroon
Tel: (+237) 222504348
E-mail: [email protected]

Issued by:
Communications Section
Economic Commission for Africa
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Addis Ababa
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