By Christian ABURIME
Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo, CFR, of Anambra State yesterday joined a high-powered panel of African leaders and financial titans, including former President Olusegun Obasanjo and UBA Chairman, Tony Elumelu, for the 2026 African Finance Corporation (AFC) Staff Retreat.The high-level gathering, held in Lagos, served as a reflective summit for the AFC’s founders and principal architects. The retreat was designed to revisit the corporation’s historic journey and recalibrate its strategic mission for mobilising capital toward Africa’s infrastructure needs in the coming years. A central theme of the discussions was the pivotal role Governor Soludo played in the AFC’s inception. During the sessions, key speakers and founders lauded the Governor’s early contributions, noting that his original blueprint and sustained advocacy were instrumental in transforming the AFC from a conceptual idea into a continent-wide financial powerhouse.
As the then-Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Governor Soludo’s vision for an African-led multilateral institution led to the formation of AFC. The organisation has since evolved into a critical vehicle for bridging the continent’s infrastructure gap.The retreat featured a rare convergence of institutional memory and forward-looking strategy. Alongside former President Obasanjo, under whose administration the AFC was birthed, and Tony Elumelu, a key private sector ally, Governor Soludo’s presence highlighted the necessity of strong leadership and cross-sector collaboration.The speakers emphasized that the AFC’s success is a testament to what can be achieved when African leaders design and lead their own financial institutions.The retreat concluded with a reaffirmed commitment to scaling the AFC’s impact, ensuring that the “founding blueprint” continues to adapt to the evolving economic landscape of the 21st-century Africa. Founded in 2007 with core mission of mobilizing global capital for African infrastructure, AFC has grown to become a leading financial institution with multi-billion dollar deployments across the continent.
