Kenyan President William Ruto has used a high-profile multilateralism summit in New York to call for sweeping reforms to the global financial architecture, arguing that outdated rules and structures are undermining trust in multilateralism and preventing Africa from mobilising its own savings for development.
Speaking at the Kenya–EU Partnership for Multilateralism Summit on the sidelines of the 81st UN General Assembly, Ruto said international financial institutions must shift from being mere lenders to becoming catalysts that unlock domestic capital across the continent.
Ruto’s central message was that the question to international partners should no longer be only “how much money can you bring to Africa?” Instead, he said, the focus must be on “how can we use the international financial architecture to unlock the money Africa already has?”
He argued that Africa has sufficient domestic savings—in pension funds, insurers and other long-term investors—but these resources are not being effectively deployed for development because of high perceived risks, expensive guarantees and a financial system that prices African risk poorly.
The President called on multilateral and development finance institutions to act as catalysts by using guarantees, credit enhancement and risk-sharing tools to attract African institutional capital into investable projects. “The objective should be clear: international capital should increasingly catalyse African capital, not substitute for it,” he said.
He urged that African risk be priced using actual default and recovery experience, with more affordable guarantees, greater local-currency credit enhancement and a pipeline of bankable projects. In his view, this would reduce dependence on external borrowing, lower debt vulnerabilities and give African countries more policy space to invest in growth and social priorities.
Ruto framed financial reform as integral to restoring faith in multilateralism. He said institutions that do not reflect the people whose cooperation they require will struggle to command trust, and that the crisis of multilateralism is also a crisis of rules and institutions that have failed to keep pace with a changing world.
“Trust will be restored when multilateralism works more fairly, rules are applied consistently, institutions reflect the world they govern, and cooperation delivers results that people can see and feel,” he said.
The summit, co-hosted with European Council President António Costa and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, brought together leaders to discuss how conflicts, climate change, artificial intelligence and other emerging challenges are increasing pressure on the multilateral system.
For African policymakers and investors, Ruto’s proposals point to a different model of development finance: one that leverages African savings, reduces reliance on volatile external debt and uses international institutions to de-risk rather than dominate financing. If adopted, such an approach could reshape how Africa funds infrastructure, energy, health and climate action, while strengthening its voice in global economic governance.
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