ContextClosing remarks at the 2026 Annual Meetings of the African Development Bank Group in Brazzaville, before the bank's governors.
Why it mattersSums up the bank's priorities: women, youth jobs, small firms and access to basic services.
- Women and youth face limited opportunities.
- SMEs lack support.
- Access to essential services is uneven.
- Empower women and create youth jobs.
- Support SMEs.
- Work toward universal access to essential services.
Read the speech summary
1. Thanks and strategic direction
Closing the bank's annual meetings in Brazzaville, President Sidi Ould Tah thanked the Congo's president and people for the welcome and praised the presidential dialogue as a political highlight. He said the strong support received for his reform agenda is now the compass of his mandate, that results exceeded expectations, and that the week set in motion dynamics of action, transformation and integration, with Africa at a turning point and the free trade area as its macroeconomic instrument.
2. Concrete results
He saluted the Congolese president's decision to lift visa requirements for all Africans from 1 January 2027 as a step moving integration from words to reality. A session on the Congo Basin's blue fund drew nearly three billion dollars in pledges, a historic first, for 17 countries. A meeting with civil society, philanthropists and the diaspora stressed women's empowerment, youth jobs, support for small firms and universal access to basic services. Angola confirmed 6.5 million euros for the seventeenth African Development Fund, bringing African contributors to 25 and over 190 million dollars. Quoting a Congolese poet, he said the continent's question mark is becoming an exclamation mark of ambition, confidence and action.