According to Olavo Correia, who is also Cape Verde's Minister of Finance, the country is taking the issue to the African Development Bank (AfDB) annual meetings, which are taking place in Nairobi, Kenya, until Friday.

"It is essential that creditor countries look at the specificities and vulnerabilities of small island states, therefore we want to put the issue of converting debt into climate investment on the agenda," he explained, in an interview with Lusa on the sidelines of the AfDB meetings, in the Kenyan capital.

"We started talking to Portugal, Angola also wants to join, we want to mobilise other partners so that we can have an envelope that is important to attract private investment to Cape Verde in the climate area, but above all to convert the liability, which is debt, into an asset, which is investment in the climate, creating well-paid jobs for our young people," added the government official.

Investments that then, he explained, allow promoting access to energy, water, sanitation, "not only continuously, but at a much more affordable price for citizens and companies".

"Because it is also a very important element: reducing context costs and improving the capacity of national private companies to create jobs, in the diaspora, but also foreign companies that want to invest in Africa, invest in Cape Verde," he argued.

More than 3,000 economists, politicians, government officials and experts are participating in these annual AfDB meetings, where the need to reform international financial institutions to develop the continent will be debated until Friday, with the institution's priority being to lead the "challenge of reforming global financial institutions".

The AfDB Group is the main African development finance institution and is meeting in Nairobi to discuss "Africa's Transformation, the African Development Bank Group and the Reform of the Global Financial Architecture".

"These are important issues that are on the agenda and what happens is that the private sector will have to play an increased role in this new approach, because in the face of the colossal challenges we are facing, in the face of the need to respond urgently, public means are not enough. Therefore, if it is possible to respond by mobilising private means, private financing and also public-private partnerships in addition to concessional financing and also the resources that we can mobilise in our countries," said Olavo Correia.

To this end, he argued, African countries must present "good governance, transparency, institutions, regulation, trust, predictability", so that "the markets also respond in terms of attracting private investment".

"But above all, how can we support not only large companies, but also the African and Cape Verdean economic system, the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) that need a risk-sharing system so that they can have access to financing to be able to undertake. And today, in Africa, we do not have a financial system adapted for MSMEs. The AfDB must also come in to help," he said, pointing to the role of the largest African financial institution also "in governance".

"So that, together with large companies, we can have a strong economic fabric in Africa and strong in Cape Verde to create qualified jobs," he argued.

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