The African Development Bank should do more to tap finance from oil-rich Middle Eastern nations and access the money held by pension funds on the continent as development needs grow, a contender for the institution’s presidency said.

Africa’s biggest multilateral development bank currently lends out about $10 billion a year when the continent’s needs exceed $100 billion, said Mauritania’s Sidi Ould Tah, who recently stepped down as the president of the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa.

“We are not really tapping all the potential of this region which has excess of liquidity and also has many development finance institution which are providing very low cost financing,” Tah said of the Middle East’s richest nations, which together form the Gulf Cooperation Council, in an interview this week. “There is big interest from the GCC countries to invest in Africa.”

Tah, who has served as finance minister of his country, is one of five candidates running to lead the AfDB as Nigeria’s Akinwumi Adesina prepares to step down. If successful he would take over at a time when Africa’s infrastructure, health and related climate adaptation needs are surging even as the US cancels almost all of its aid and withdraws from financing climate-related projects.

The front-runners are seen as Swazi Tshabalala, South Africa’s candidate, and Amadou Hott, a minister of economy and planning in Senegal. Zambia and Chad have also fielded candidates.

“Given my experience and my network I can add to the development of the continent,” he said, referencing his connections to the Arab world.

The AfDB could invest alongside sovereign wealth funds from the gulf countries to lower risk and could do the same for African pension funds, which he said collectively hold more than $2 trillion but invest much of their money abroad.