The African Forum of Deposit Funds: strategic partners for long-term development finance

“Our continent has more than $4 trillion in domestic savings and assets. The challenge is to mobilize these resources more effectively and channel them toward long-term financing for our economies. That is also how we can gradually strengthen our financial sovereignty,” said Maryse Lokossou, head of Benin’s Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations and chair of the Forum of CDCs. She was opening the Forum’s annual meeting, held in Cotonou from 7 to 9 September. The 17 participating institutions, including CDCs from Morocco, Cameroon, and Côte d’Ivoire, gathered to discuss their priorities.

“Our objective is for the Forum to become more than a network of CDCs. We want it to connect them with the wider financial ecosystem needed to turn African savings into long-term investment,” Lokossou continued. “Having resources is not enough. We also need sound, well-structured projects in which to invest. That means looking further upstream: identifying and preparing projects, supporting businesses, and helping them build the structures they need.”

African CDCs have strong local roots – most are based in North and West Africa – that make them important development actors. They understand local needs, can mobilize domestic resources, and can work over the long term. As their role grows, countries gain greater capacity to finance their own development priorities at a time when official development assistance is declining internationally.

Support across AFD Group

“Supporting CDCs means supporting African institutions that can provide lasting finance for their countries’ development priorities. They are strategic partners for the AFD Group, which can draw on its full range of financial instruments and expertise to work with them,” explained Sandra Kassab, AFD’s Director for Africa.

In France, AFD has maintained close ties with Caisse des Dépôts since the two groups signed an alliance charter in 2016, renewed in 2024. With African CDCs, the AFD Group seeks to go beyond individual projects by supporting the institutions’ development, their capacities and financial products, and their role in national financing systems.

In Benin, this work draws on expertise from across the Group. Expertise France helps strengthen the institution and develop innovative products, particularly those linked to diaspora savings through the DIASDEV project. AFD provides additional resources for very small, small, and medium-sized enterprises, notably through Choose Africa 2. Proparco is exploring how CDC equity investments in companies could complement loans to those businesses.

“CDCs bring detailed knowledge of their economies and the ability to mobilize domestic savings. The AFD Group can provide long-term financing and expertise, and bring in other partners,” Kassab added. “Our aim is to amplify the impact of their investments.”

A forum for stronger partnerships

Alongside the Forum, Benin’s CDC joined the renewed governance of Finance in Common (FiCS). Its Director General, Adama Mariko, said: “CDCs hold a distinctive place in the Finance in Common community. Giving them a role in FiCS governance through Benin’s CDC is an important step. Their ability to mobilize domestic savings and turn them into long-term investment makes them a strategic model for Africa, one that FiCS wants to help share and replicate.”

For Lokossou, “This new step reflects our determination to connect our institutions more closely with international networks of public development banks and long-term investors. It gives full meaning to this year’s Forum theme, ‘From resources to impact.’”