As a young African, I often catch myself wondering will our generation finally see a continent that grows on its own terms, sustainably and inclusively? I’ve spent years asking one simple question: when will Africa’s growth truly belong to Africa? As the world’s economic order shifts, a growing chorus of African voices is calling not just for reform but for transformation of the global financial architecture. When that is attained, then the story will be ours to write. The global financial system wasn’t designed with Africa in mind, yet we’re expected to play by its rules. According to the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Africa faces a financing gap of up to $1.3 trillion annually to meet its sustainable development goals. At the same time, many countries carry external debt burdens exceeding $1 trillion, with a significant portion eaten up by interest payments. With such pressures mounting, the continent is confronting not only high borrowing costs and constrained fiscal space, but a mismatch between what global institutions expect and what African nations need. I was recently fortunate to attend a lecture by former African Development Bank President Donald Kaberuka on Leveraging Global Africa’s Capital for Development and his sentiments were clear: Africa needs institutions and frameworks owned by Africa, shaped by Africa, and aligned to African realities. We do not just need a single, bigger bank but a coordinated ecosystem: credible continental and regional institutions, deep local-currency capital markets, better risk intermediation, and policy frameworks that mobilize domestic savings (pensions, insurers, banks) into long-term productive investment. This is important because having clear status and credibility means these institutions can lend on better terms, leverage local capital, and avoid getting trapped in the same cycle of high-cost, short-term borrowing that has undermined many African economies. One of the sharpest metaphors Kaberuka used was that African financial architecture must operate like an orchestra, many instruments playing together in harmony, rather than isolated soloists. In short, the challenge is not simply to mobilise more African “capitalism” (in the sense of private investment), but to mobilise African capital, in its broadest sense; public, private, regional, domestic and channel it effectively. The International Monetary Fund does recognize that the architecture must evolve. Its 2025 policy work on the international financial system and sovereign debt notes the need to adapt tools and rules including the debt sustainability framework, the global debt architecture, and transparency practices to an environment of new risks and recurrent external shocks. The risk of inaction is high. If the global architecture remains mis-aligned, African countries will keep borrowing at high cost, face currency/debt crises, and struggle to access long-term, affordable finance, a concern reflected across recent IMF policy papers on financing, debt resolution, and development. There are several forces converging that make reform urgent: Africa’s working-age population is growing, youth demographics present opportunities, if matched with investment in education, infrastructure and jobs. There are rising global interest rates, inflation, supply-chain disruption, climate shocks. And shifting geopolitics have constrained foreign investment and aid flows. However, with the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and renewed continental ambitions, such as African Union's Agenda 2063, there is momentum for intra-African trade, capital flows and collective infrastructure. But the financial architecture must support it. With opportunity comes risk: if reform is half-hearted, Africa could face just another iteration of dependency, high debt, low domestic control, and vulnerability to external shocks. As many analysts warn, what matters is ownership and alignment not simply more of the same labelled “Africa’s finance.” I have come to learn that reconstructing Africa’s financial architecture is not just a matter of tweaking a few rules. It is about re-building an ecosystem involving institutions, frameworks, capital flows, governance models that reflect Africa’s end-users, not past donors. It is about Africa taking the driver’s seat, not being strapped into the back seat. For Rwanda, and for the continent at large, the opportunity is large but so is the task. The financial architecture of tomorrow must be built not for Africa as an afterthought, but for Africa as an equal partner and architect of its own destiny. The writer is a business journalist, currently pursuing a master’s degree in international development.
