The Africa Investment Forum has launched a series of investment roundtables to overcome Africa’s project bankability challenges and, ultimately, bridge its infrastructure investment gap. The Roundtables will showcase key players currently focused on project development and bankability in Africa.

Held on the sidelines of the African Development Bank’s 2024 Annual Meetings in Nairobi, the first roundtable featured presentations by Cygnum Capital (https://apo-opa.co/3KyjnNa) and the Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA) (https://apo-opa.co/3KtgEVp). It was moderated by Aly-Khan Jamal, Partner at the Boston Consulting Group.

Cygnum is a leading investment banking and asset management firm that serves frontier and emerging markets. SEFA is a $500 million multi-donor fund managed by the African Development Bank that provides catalytic finance to unlock private sector investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency.

In her opening remarks, Chinelo Anohu, Senior Director of the African Development Bank, said, “The Africa Investment Forum’s Bankability Series is a testament to our unwavering commitment to advancing the bankability of deals across Africa. By showcasing innovative approaches and fostering collaboration among key stakeholders, we aim to redirect global capital flows towards Africa’s transformative projects. Together, we can unlock the continent’s vast potential and drive sustainable economic growth.”

She also highlighted the Bank Group’s Transition Support Facility (TSF), which provides additional concessional resources to enhance private sector growth in eligible African Development Fund (ADF) countries, comprising the 37 most vulnerable African countries to fragility and conflict. She noted that 10 of 37 Board Room deals presented at the Africa Investment Forum Market Days 2023 benefited from the TSF.

The Africa Investment Forum, an initiative of the African Development Bank and seven founding partners, is a platform that advances projects to bankable stages, raises capital, and accelerates deals to financial closure. Since 2018, when it was created, the platform has showcased over 150 deals on the global stage through its Boardrooms approach.

The Africa Investment Forum’s annual Market Days event brings together transaction sponsors, investors and governments in Board Rooms to move deals toward bankability.

The Bankability Roundtables will showcase key players currently focused on project development and bankability in Africa.

Chris Kandie, Cygnum Capital’s Executive Director, shared insights from a private sector perspective. He cited several challenges facing project preparation and development in Africa. They include human resource capacity, lack of scale, speed, accessibility, focus, and coordination among project preparation facilities.

Cygnum Capital provided advisory services for the Kenya Affordable Green Housing Fund (KGAHF), an investment opportunity presented at the 2019 Africa Investment Forum’s Market Days. The fund achieved its first close of $84.5 million in July 2021, attracting investments from local pension funds, DFIs, and the European Investment Bank.

Joao Duarte Cunha, head of Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (https://apo-opa.co/3KtgEVp) cited several projects that have been presented to investors through the Africa Investment Forum, including the Facility for Energy Inclusion (FEI) which was Africa’s first dedicated off-grid, mini-grid, and small Independent Power Producer (IPP) debt fund. A $1 million grant provided by SEFA ultimately helped to raise over $400 million globally across two different funds.

Another project that featured at Market Days is SPARK + Africa, the world’s first impact investment fund to finance the value chains for clean cooking to expand availability to more Africans.

The Africa Investment Forum will hold follow-up roundtables focusing on the role of technology in enhancing project bankability and development.  

The event drew about 100 attendees including African Development Bank Vice President for Private Sector, Infrastructure and Industrialisation Solomon Quaynor, the Bank Group president’s Special representative for the Africa Investment Forum Yacine Fal. Representatives of the platform’s Founding Partners, Deutsche Bank, African Risk Capacity Group, Japan International Cooperation Agency, KfW, the German state-owned investment and development bank, Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, IFC, Swiss Re Group, and the Confederation of Chinese investors among others, were also present.

The Africa Investment Forum’s Founding Partners are the African Development Bank Group, Africa50, Afreximbank, the Africa Finance Corporation, the Development Bank of Southern Africa, the European Investment Bank, the Islamic Development Bank and the Trade and Development Bank.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of African Development Bank Group (AfDB).

Media contact:  
Olufemi Terry
Communication and External Relations Department
media@afdb.org

About the African Development Bank Group:
The African Development Bank Group is Africa’s premier development finance institution. It comprises three distinct entities: the African Development Bank (AfDB), the African Development Fund (ADF) and the Nigeria Trust Fund (NTF). On the ground in 41 African countries with an external office in Japan, the Bank contributes to the economic development and the social progress of its 54 regional member states. For more information: www.AfDB.org

Representatives from the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the African Development Bank Group (www.AfDB.org) this week discussed further details of the Dutch government’s recent $27 million financial commitment to the Africa Disaster Risk Financing Program Multi-Donor Trust Fund.

With this commitment, signed earlier this month, the Netherlands becomes the sixth contributor to the Fund, operated by the Bank Group to boost Africa’s resilience and responsiveness to climate shocks.

The Africa Disaster Risk Financing Program (ADRiFI) Multi-Donor Trust Fund bolsters drought insurance protection for African countries to mitigate the negative impacts of climate-related extremes such as cyclones, flooding and drought. Working in collaboration with the African Risk Capacity Ltd., the funds will support the Bank’s promotion of parametric insurance and other climate risk management instruments in Africa.

During discussions on the sideline of the Bank’s Annual Meetings in Nairobi, Kenya, Mark Zellenrath, Director for Multilateral Institutions and Human Rights at the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Bank Vice President Dr. Beth Dunford welcomed the new partnership.

“This Dutch government commitment to the Trust Fund will help bring additional protection to millions of the continent’s most vulnerable people threatened by climate disaster,” said Dunford, responsible for agriculture, human and social development at the Bank.

Mark Zellenrath said: “The Kingdom of the Netherlands is proud of becoming a new donor to the Africa Disaster Risk Financing Programme and providing additional funding to reduce the protection gap in Africa and make parametric insurance solutions accessible to those at the frontlines of climate change across the African continent.”

The Bank has invested more than $100 million and supported 16 African countries to access sovereign insurance and financial protection against climate hazards.

Since its establishment in 2019, the ADRiFi program has provided financial protection against severe droughts and tropical cyclones to more than six million people, significantly bolstering resilience in vulnerable communities.

Apart from the Netherlands, other donors to the ADRiFi Multi-Donor Trust Fund are the United Kingdom, Switzerland, the United States, Canada, and Norway.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of African Development Bank Group (AfDB).

Media Contact:
Alphonso Van Marsh
Principal Digital Content and Events Officer
email: media@afdb.org

About the African Development Bank Group:
The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) is Africa’s premier development finance institution. It comprises three distinct entities: the African Development Bank (AfDB), the African Development Fund (ADF) and the Nigeria Trust Fund (NTF). On the ground in 37 African countries with an external office in Japan, the AfDB contributes to the economic development and the social progress of its 54 regional member states. For more information: www.AfDB.org

Multinational commodity trader Trafigura will participate at the Angola Oil&Gas (AOG) 2024 conference – scheduled for October 2-3 in Luanda – as a gold sponsor. The sponsorship during this year’s event demonstrates the company’s commitment to deploying infrastructure, market expertise and a regional logistics network to support production and distribution in Angola.

As a supplier of commodities, Trafigura responsibly connects producers and consumers of minerals, metals and energy through the deployment of infrastructure and logistics to make supply chains more efficient. During the AOG 2024 conference, the company is expected to outline strategies for improving infrastructure and logistics in Angola as the country moves to increase oil production while bolstering the expansion of other strategic sectors such as mining.

Organized by Energy Capital&Power, AOG is the largest oil and gas event in Angola. Taking place with the full support of the Ministry of Mineral Resources, Oil and Gas; the National Oil, Gas and Biofuels Agency; the African Energy Chamber; and the Petroleum Derivatives Regulatory Institute, the event is a platform to sign deals and advance Angola’s oil and gas industry. To sponsor or participate as a delegate, please contact sales@energycapitalpower.com.

In February, Trafigura and Canadian mining company Ivanhoe Mines forged a long-term agreement to transport minerals via Angola’s Lobito Atlantic Railway. Under the agreement, which spans a minimum term of six years, Trafigura will transport up to between 120,000 and 240,000 tons of copper per year from Ivanhoe’s Kamoa-Kakula mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo to the Port of Lobito.

The agreement marks the first long-term commercial commitment to the Lobito Atlantic Railway, which connects Central Africa’s Copperbelt region to the Port of Lobito and aims to provide a more efficient and lower-carbon route for bringing copper, cobalt and other transition metals to market.

Trafigura also serves as part of the Lobito Atlantic Railway consortium, which features construction company Mota-Engil and transport services company Vecturis. The consortium was awarded a 30-year concession for the operation, maintenance and management of the railway and for the Lobito Minerals port.

This year’s AOG 2024 conference will serve as the premier platform for stakeholders to address pressing issues within Angola’s oil and gas domain, encompassing strategies to mitigate production decline, bolster exploration efforts, diversify the economy and spearhead a just energy transition by harnessing natural gas resources.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Energy Capital&Power.

A Kampala-based commercial bank with a “mission critical focus” to provide financial services to vulnerable women entrepreneurs has been named the “AFAWA Bank of the Year” at the African Banker Awards.

Centenary Rural and Development Bank picked up the honor named after African Development Bank’s Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) (https://apo-opa.co/3Kt8IUg) initiative at the awards ceremony held during the African Development Bank’s Annual Meetings underway in Nairobi, Kenya. The African Banker Awards celebrate excellence and best practices in African banking and finance. The AFAWA Bank of the Year accolade recognizes the commitment of Centenary Rural and Development Bank – popularly known as Centenary Bank – to advancing women access to finance, like its “Cente Supawoman” financial product that offers loans up to $1,300 without collateral.

“Our Supawoman product is about that underprivileged woman who is struggling to grow that business. The roadside seller, the hawkers, the retailers, market vendors,” said Michael JJingo, the Bank’s General Manager for Commercial Services, said after receiving the trophy.

“If given an opportunity for financial inclusion and financial services accessibility, this woman can do miracles,” JJingo added.

The AFAWA Bank of the Year award recognizes financial institutions contributing to bridging the $49 billion gender financing gap in Africa, particularly through the AFAWA Guarantee for Growth facility. AFAWA, with its Guarantee for Growth facility as its cornerstone, seeks to unlock $5 billion in access to finance for 30,000 women-owned and led businesses through financial institutions.

“For the second consecutive year, the AFAWA Bank of the Year Award honor goes to the bank that has impactfully incorporated the development and growth of women-led small and medium enterprises as part of [its small and medium enterprise] strategy”, said Dr. Beth Dunford, African Development Bank’s Vice President for Agriculture, Human and Social Development.

When announcing the AFAWA Bank of the Year award, Dr. Dunford also said aside from Centenary Rural and Development Bank’s “Cente SupaWoman” financial services tailored to the needs of women entrepreneurs, the Bank had also experienced a 23 percent growth in women-owned and led businesses in its portfolios from 2020 to 2023. Centenary Rural and Development Bank joined the AFAWA Guarantee for Growth program as a partner financial institution at the program’s onset.

AFAWA is supported by various development partners including the G7 countries (France, Canada, Italy, Germany and the European Commission), the Netherlands, Sweden, and the Women Entrepreneurship Finance Initiative (We-Fi) of the World Bank Group. 

The awards ceremony is organised by African Banker magazine with the African Development Bank as its High Patron. The African Banker Awards are part of the African Development Bank Annual Meetings official program, which this year is held under the theme: “Africa’s Transformation, the African Development Bank Group and the Reform of the Global Financial Architecture.”

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of African Development Bank Group (AfDB).

Media Contact:
Alphonso Van Marsh
Principal Digital Content and Events Officer
media@afdb.org

About the African Development Bank Group:
The African Development Bank Group is Africa’s premier development finance institution. It comprises three distinct entities: the African Development Bank (AfDB), the African Development Fund (ADF) and the Nigeria Trust Fund (NTF). On the ground in 41 African countries with an external office in Japan, the Bank contributes to the economic development and the social progress of its 54 regional member states. For more information: www.AfDB.org