A senior speaker addresses participants during Africa Capital Week 2026 in Nairobi, Kenya. Photo Credit: Economic Planning Department, Kenya

NNA News - African policymakers, investors and financial-sector stakeholders have adopted the Nairobi Declaration 2026, calling for stronger integration of the continent's capital markets and greater mobilisation of domestic resources for development.

The declaration was adopted at the inaugural Africa Capital Week 2026, which brought together about 500 delegates from more than 20 African countries, according to the forum organisers. The main forum ran from 7 to 8 September in Nairobi, followed by market and project visits from 9 to 11 September. Held under the theme “Deepening Capital Markets to Advance Africa's Economic Sovereignty”, the forum focused on how African countries can improve the ability of domestic savings and institutional capital to finance infrastructure, businesses and other development priorities.

The Nairobi Declaration calls for enhanced regulatory cooperation, greater integration of African securities exchanges, the development of an Africa Bankable Projects Pipeline and increased mobilisation of institutional capital for infrastructure, according to Kenya's State Department for Economic Planning. The declaration is intended to provide a framework for further cooperation on Africa's capital markets, with the organisers describing it as a set of commitments to be presented to Kenyan President William Ruto in his capacity as African Union Champion for Institutional Reforms.

Closing the forum on Tuesday, Kenya's Principal Secretary for Economic Planning, Bonface Makokha, said Africa's challenge was not simply a shortage of capital but the difficulty of connecting available resources with credible investment opportunities.

He said fragmented markets, inadequate project preparation, regulatory barriers and the disconnect between savings and productive investment remained obstacles to mobilising capital at scale. “Nairobi is the starting point. Africa is the destination. Let us move from fragmentation to integration; from potential to investment; and from announcements to deployment,” Makokha said.

Makokha said the success of the commitments would ultimately depend on measurable outcomes, including capital mobilised, enterprises financed, projects delivered, deeper markets and jobs created. He also announced that Africa Capital Week would become an annual continental platform.

At the opening of the forum, Makokha had similarly stressed the need to connect capital mobilisation with measurable economic outcomes. “Capital mobilization is not the outcome but transformation is,” he said, calling for monitoring and evaluation to be integrated into investment and policy processes.

Participants attend a session during Africa Capital Week 2026 in Nairobi, Kenya. Photo Credit: Economic Planning Department, Kenya

The forum placed particular emphasis on Africa's domestic savings, including pension, insurance and other institutional funds, as potential sources of long-term development finance. Kenya's Principal Secretary for Public Investments and Asset Management, Cyrell Wagunda, said stronger public investment management and better-prepared projects were necessary to attract institutional and private capital. “Capital follows credible opportunities. Our responsibility is therefore to ensure that those opportunities exist,” Wagunda said during the forum.

Wagunda said African countries should diversify development financing through instruments including infrastructure bonds, infrastructure investment trusts and asset-backed securities. He also highlighted public-private partnerships as a potential avenue for financing infrastructure, provided projects are properly prepared and risks are appropriately allocated.

The issue of accessibility to African capital markets was also raised before the forum by Willie Njoroge, president of the Africa Stockbrokers and Securities Dealers Association and chief executive of the Kenya Association of Stockbrokers and Investment Banks. “The challenge, in a nutshell, has been accessibility,” Njoroge said, calling for stronger links between African stock exchanges and platforms that can facilitate cross-border investment. The Nairobi Declaration's emphasis on market integration comes against a broader effort to strengthen financial links between African economies and improve the flow of capital across borders.

The forum organisers said its objectives included policy harmonisation, improving market credibility and showcasing investment-ready projects and listing-ready enterprises. The programme also included investment and project sessions covering areas such as infrastructure and other sectors considered important to Africa's development.

For the organisers and participating governments, the focus now shifts from the commitments made in Nairobi to their implementation. Makokha said the progress of Africa Capital Week commitments would be reviewed every six months, putting emphasis on whether capital is actually mobilised and whether investments translate into projects, businesses, jobs and broader economic outcomes.

The Nairobi meeting therefore places capital-market integration alongside project preparation, regulatory reform and investor confidence as part of the broader effort to increase Africa's capacity to finance its own development.