AfDB: Nigeria, Others Require $1.2tn Annual Investment
Countries in Africa, including Nigeria, require an investment of about $1.2tn annually in order to achieve the continent’s economic development targets, the African Development Bank has said.
The AfDB on Tuesday also inaugurated the Africa Investment Forum, a platform to mobilise private equity funds, sovereign wealth funds and the private sector to facilitate infrastructure projects, with the capacity to transform the continent and adequately address Africa’s economic development challenges.
The President, AfDB, Akinwumi Adesina, noted that there was an urgent need to bridge the gap between available capital and bankable projects in Africa, adding that the AIF would help make the continent a place where its young people want to live in and thrive, according to a statement issued by the bank’s Communication Officer, Emeka Anuforo.
Adesina was quoted as saying, “The overall investment gap for Africa to achieve overall economic development is actually much higher and stands at $200bn to $1.2tn a year. Impediments to bankable projects must be resolved to create win-wins for governments, development finance institutions and other relevant stakeholders. Africa must invest in its own development if it wants others to do so.
“This is the essential reason for the new approach of the Africa Investment Forum, a multi-stakeholder and multi-disciplinary platform that will incentivise collaboration for the economic and social development of Africa. This will primarily be about transactions and investment deals for Africa’s economic development and not a talk shop.”
Adesina said financing Africa’s development had always been a collective and cooperative task, requiring broad-based partnerships with the private sector.
He added, “We know that the money is there. By 2020, there will be close to $111tn assets under management globally that are invested around the world, often at very low interest rates. Within Africa, the assets under management of domestic institutional investors will rise to $1.8tn by 2020, tripling from $634bn in 2014.
“Most of this money isn’t invested in Africa. But Africa should invest in its own development if it wants others to do so.”
The AfDB noted that key industry leaders had endorsed the forum as a unique opportunity for the private sector to invest in transformative projects across major sectors of strategic interest in Africa.
The Investor Relations and Communication Executive, Harith General Partners, Pule Molebeledi, described the investment guarantee component of the AIF as a game changer, adding that “this will be a major catalyst for projects that are currently stuck in the pipeline.”
