Gambia’s Finance Minister Takes Over as Chair of African IMF/World Bank Caucus – Foroyaa Newspaper

Finance Minister, Seedy Keita 

The Gambia’s Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, Hon. Seedy K.M. Keita, has assumed the Chairmanship of the African Caucus of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, following his participation in the 2025 meeting held in Bangui, Central African Republic. The high-level gathering, which brought together finance ministers, central bank governors, and development partners from across Africa, focused on innovative financing strategies to bridge the continent’s infrastructure gap and enhance fiscal capacity for resilient, inclusive, and sustainable growth.

Below is the full press release dated 5 August 2025 from the Ministry of Finance:

The Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, Hon. Seedy K.M Keita and delegation recently attended the IMF/World Bank African Caucus meeting in Bangui, Central African Republic, from 30th July -2nd August 2025. This year’s Caucus was held under the theme “Resilient Infrastructure, Human Capital, and Green Asset: Essential Levers for strong, Inclusive, and Sustainable Growth in Africa”, with a focus on “Innovative Financing Solutions to Closing Africa’s Infrastructure Gap” and “Enhancing Fiscal Capacity and Public Investment Efficiency for Resilient Infrastructure Building in Africa”. The meeting was attended by Finance Ministers across Africa, senior officials of the IMF and World Bank Group (WBG), Central Bank Governors and development partners.  

The meeting commended the IMF and the WBG for their continued financial, technical and advisory support in addressing the continent’s infrastructure challenges and seek the doubling of concessional financing from the Bretton Woods Institutions (BWIs) and other development partners to meet the growing demand for modern and resilient infrastructure.

The IMF Governors or Finance Ministers of the respective African nations highlighted the structural imbalance in the global financial architecture, which results in disproportionately high capital and borrowing costs for African nations. This disparity persists even where countries demonstrate sound economic fundamentals and political stability.

The meeting called for the IMF and WBG to enhance their support in developing sustainable debt strategies that prioritize resilience-building investments and explore innovative financing instruments tailored to Africa’s needs. Further, they called for the IMF to ensure flexible policies, provide high access level and leverage its broad membership to advance Special Drawing Rights (SDR) rechanneling to regional Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) for resilient infrastructure development, given the challenging global context. 

Furthermore, the IMF Governors urged development partners, including the IMF and the WBG, to scale up innovative investment solutions that meet the standard of efficiency, accessibility, and resilience, by effectively integrating climate-resilient and adaptive measures into planning, design and implementation of infrastructure projects to promote the continent’s transformation.

The Caucus further requested for impactful technical assistance and tailored capacity-building to help African countries make their regulatory and legal landscapes more business-friendly for competitive private sector investments in the infrastructure sector on a large scale and to reform their infrastructure services, so that they are financially sound and efficient.  

The Ministers furthered urged the IMF and the WBG to strengthen engagement with regional bodies and authorities to leverage expertise, knowledge sharing, and avoid duplication of efforts. This includes strengthening capacity building on cost-benefit analysis of infrastructure investment, and support the design of bankable, resilient infrastructure projects. 

The meeting resolved to continue undertaking and implementing the needed reforms tailored to country specific circumstances and providing the necessary enabling environment for Africa’s full participation in the development ecosystem. 

As part of the activities of the Caucus, the Minister of Finance & Economic Affairs, Governor for IMF and the World Bank for The Gambia Hon. Seedy KM Keita, also participated in a panel discussion on the theme “Enhancing Fiscal Capacity and Public Investment Efficiencies for resilient Infrastructure Building in Africa”, showcasing the progress made by The Gambia in this area.  

At the conclusion of the meeting, Hon. Seedy KM Keita, took over the Chairmanship of the African Caucus and The Gambia will host the African Caucus of the IMF and the World Bank in 2026. 

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