Briefing Paper

Issues and Challenges in Mobilizing African Diaspora Investment

The costs of financing African development, including infrastructure and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, are escalating, intensifying the quest for new innovative sources of financing to meet these costs and close existing financing gaps. African diaspora populations are growing, as are their savings and the scale of resources available to reinvest in their countries of origin. Yet, until recently, African countries have made little substantive progress in attracting these savings. Several key actions, catalyzed and supported by the African Development Bank and other development partners, can generate substantive new and additional resources from diaspora savings, helping to finance infrastructure and other development costs.