Sierra Leone Telegraph: 01 June 2025:
The Mo Ibrahim Foundation has released the 2025 Facts & Figures: Financing the Africa We Want Report, ahead of this year’s Ibrahim Governance Weekend (IGW), which will take place in Marrakech, Morocco, from 1-3 June, under the High Patronage of His Majesty King Mohammed VI.
The Report will inform the discussions at the 2025 Ibrahim Forum, scheduled Monday 2 June, which will gather key African and global stakeholders to debate the challenges and opportunities around financing the continent’s development and climate ambitions.
The research report assesses how the continent can mobilise its resources and reframe external partnerships to achieve its own priorities and goals. These considerations are framed against the backdrop of collapsing traditional aid structures, with Africa’s share of Official Development Assistance (ODA) from historical donors having declined by 11 percentage points in the last decade, and the underperformance of global climate finance systems.
With the continent’s development and climate bills only set to rise, Africa can chart a more self-reliant path leveraging the vast untapped potential across domestic revenue, natural assets, and investment opportunities.
The Facts & Figures highlights potential sources of finance, from underutilised sovereign wealth and pension funds that could be invested on the continent to weak tax systems and unmonetised biodiversity and mineral reserves, but also ways to avoid losses through costly debt repayments and illicit financial flows.
2025 Ibrahim Forum
Through four plenary sessions, the Forum will debate the continent’s key priorities; strategies to maximise domestic revenues; reforms needed to make global finance work for Africa; and ways to better attract private capital.
The Forum will feature a keynote address from Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General, World Trade Organization, and two In conversation with’s between Mo Ibrahim and Moussa Faki Mahamat, former Chairperson, African Union Commission and David Lammy, Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs of the United Kingdom, alongside a number of other high-profile speakers.
Discussions will expand on the 2024 Forum Report Financing Africa: where is the money?, which highlighted the widening gap between Africa’s urgent development and climate needs and the limited availability of external financing.
These discussions will aim to help shape a strong African position ahead of the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4), scheduled 1-3 July in Seville (Spain) and reinforce Africa’s role as a global partner, not just a passive and expecting recipient.
The whole IGW discussions will feed into a post-event Forum Report, complementing the data and insights presented in Facts & Figures with the key takeaways of the three days of discussions.
In addition to the Forum, the IGW includes events across the three days. The IGW will begin on Sunday, 1 June, with the 2025 Leadership Ceremony. This event aims to highlight the pressing challenges facing leadership both in Africa and around the world. The evening will be introduced by a Royal Message from H.M. King Mohammed VI, as well as speeches from notable figures including Amina J. Mohammed, United Nations Deputy Secretary-General; Dr Tedros Adhanon Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization; Josep Borrell, former High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the European Union; Louise Mushikiwabo, Secretary General, Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie and Dr Mo Ibrahim, Founder and Chair of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, among others.
Additionally, several events and private meetings organised by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation’s partners and friends will take place during the IGW, on 1 and 3 June.
Journalists attending the IGW are also invited to a 30-minute media briefing at the Palais des Congrès at 15:00pm CET today Sunday 1 June, where attendees will be taken through the 2025 Facts & Figures.
A complete list of side events, including information on whether they are open or closed to the public, can be found at the end of the programme.
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