The African Development Bank (AfDB) and Paris Europlace signed a cooperation agreement on July 8 in Paris, for the launch of several structuring initiatives with three objectives. First, support the development of capital markets, in the service of financing economies and businesses in Africa; then support the development of digital finance in Africa, a driving force for the development of African finance for the years to come; and finally supporting the development of skills and talents, through training.

Stefan Nalletamby, Director of the AfDB's Financial Sector Development Department, representing the Bank, said: "Our ambition is to help African countries to have efficient markets to enable them to mobilize their internal resources for financing the development. This agreement with Paris Europlace will contribute to the capacity building of actors and the mobilization of resources for African financial markets”.

The two partners have maintained regular exchanges for several years within the framework of AfricaFinLab, an African finance laboratory launched by Paris Europlace in 2017, and bringing together players from African and French and even European finance, but also from the Initiative African Financial Markets (AFMI), launched by the AfDB in 2008.
The objective of this agreement is to go a step further by creating a favorable framework for accelerating and strengthening exchanges between Paris Europlace and the African Development Bank in several areas. This will involve, for example, strengthening the sharing and dissemination of statistical data and publications, holding capacity building seminars and workshops and mobilizing investors, particularly within the framework of the African Investment Forum ( AIF).

In fact, the Bank's dialogue missions and interventions with countries in the deepening of financial systems focus essentially on the development of capital markets and support for commercial banks. These interventions also concern digital finance, trade finance, SME financing, strengthening financial inclusion and venture capital, not to mention policies to support financial sector reforms.

In recent years, there has been an increased interest from international investors to want to take advantage of high local currency returns in the real sector of African countries, thereby expanding the opportunities for resource mobilization for the continent.
In this context, the Bank collaborates with market regulators, stock exchanges, international financial centers and other capital market stakeholders. The Bank's objective is to strengthen regulatory frameworks, broaden market players and product offerings, and improve the dissemination of capital market data.

About Paris EUROPLACE
Paris EUROPLACE unites and represents the diversity of players in the financial industry: issuers, investors, banks, insurance companies, financial intermediaries, auxiliary professions, French and international, active in the Paris financial centre. It takes energetic action to strengthen the competitiveness and attractiveness of the Paris financial center through its various activities.