The African Development Bank (AfDB) is wooing investors that have appetite for high returns and social impacts with 42 bankable deals in Africa that have combined value of $58 billion.
This was disclosed on Tuesday by the President of the AfDB Group, Dr. Akinwumi A. Adesina, during the opening ceremony of the Africa Investment Forum (AIF) virtual Boardroom Session 2022, where he said the investment opportunities included, “$15.6 billion transport corridor that will link Lagos to Cotonu-Lome-Accra and Ivory Coast, and the $140 million film academy in Nigeria.”
Akinwumi stated that the boardrooms would feature projects in key priority sectors identified in the AIF’s 2020 Unified Response to COVID-19 initiative.
These sectors, according to him, included agriculture and agro-processing; education, energy and climate, healthcare, minerals and mining, information and communications technology and telecommunication, and industrialisation and trade.
He added: “Today, we have curetted for you 42 project deals with a combined value of $58 billion. There are several investment opportunities. They include $247 million special agro industrial processing zone in northern Ivory Coast. They include a $3.3 billion East Africa railway corridor that will connect Tanzania to Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
“They include healthcare projects to develop a state of art Accra medical city. They include a digital health transaction and a fund to support universal healthcare for low income patients. They include the $545 million mine project in DRC that will be critical for the global electric car industry.
“We have $140 million film academy in Nigeria. And deals in women lead businesses worth $5 billion. When women sin Africa wins. There are many more. The expectations are high. The deals are ready.”
He described the AIF as a multi-stakeholder, multi-disciplinary platform meant to advance private and public-private partnership projects to bankability. It also raises capital and accelerates deals to financial closure.
“The AIF is a connector, connecting project sponsors, investors, and financiers from public to private sectors. It helps to mitigate investors’ risk be deploying derisk guarantees including partial risk guarantees as well as partial credit guarantees to reduce risks to investments.
“It is a unique transaction platform where deals are get done. It is the Africa’s premier investment market where AfDB and its partners advance projects to bankable stages, raise capitals and accelerate deals to financial closure,” Adesina said.
He said that the outbreak of COVID-19 stopped the AIF from holding in 2020 and 2021, which were postponed for health benefit of everyone, adding that the pandemic affected investments flows into Africa.
He referred to UNCTAD investment trend monitor, which showed that foreign direct investments inflow to Africa declined by 28 per cent in the first quarter of 2020, and by the end of the third quarter of the same year, investments in Greenfield projects declined by 66 per cent while cross border mergers and acquisition declined by 44 per cent.
Adesina said: “Yet Africa is resilient. African economies are recovering well from the effects of the pandemic. The investment opportunities in Africa have not changed.
“Africa remains the place to invest for investors looking to reap high returns and high social impacts. That is why I am delighted that we have 300 investors from around the world. Your participation shows that you see that opportunities in Africa that cannot be ignored.
“The AIF is a unique transaction platform where deals get done. It is the Africa’s premier investment market where AfDB and its partners advance projects to bankable stages raise capital and accelerate closure of deals.”
The AIF is an initiative of the AfDB with Africa 50, the Africa Finance Corporation, the African Export-Import Bank, the Development Bank of Southern Africa, the Trade and Development Bank, the European Investment Bank, and the Islamic Development Bank as founding partners.
