AFRICA has the resources to finance its own development but it lacks the relevant processes to effectively allocate the needed resources, a development think tank has declared.

This observation is made in the latest Mo Ibrahim Foundation report, urging African countries to properly manage its resources to attain its aspired development.

Further steps need to be taken to reform the international financial system and update African debt structuring, risk assessment and mitigation as well as loan conditionalities, it said, affirming that when it comes to domestic resources, they are either dormant or misused.

Mo Ibrahim, the founder and chairman of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, asserts in the report titled "Financing Africa: Where is the Money?" that the report provides a comprehensive analysis of what is deemed necessary for Africa to meet its development and climate goals and the resources that are currently available.

 “We need a complete change of paradigm,’ he declared, insisting that the key issue is not about Africa coming to the developed world with a begging bowl and developed countries considering how much more they can pledge.

“This is about smarter money, not just more money. As this report outlines, the money is already there,” he stated, while the report is blunt that the continent must stop squandering its own assets and take proper ownership and responsibility. 

“In short, we must apply good governance to ensure these assets are adequately leveraged for the best interests of our people,” he said, while the report first identifies the substantial but often incoherent numbers associated with Africa's development and climate goals.

“While the task of assessing financial needs is complicated by inconsistent data from multiple sources, the figures all point to staggering numbers,” the report’s compilers noted.

It analyses financial contributions from non-African sources including official development assistance (ODA) as it accounts for nearly 10 percent of the continent’s financial resources.

ODA from Western donors remains primarily directed towards health and education and often comes with specific conditionalities, the report asserts.

“Debt cannot be the way out as stock and servicing costs have tripled since 2009, and its increasingly complex structure renders traditional relief efforts obsolete, it added.