Accelerating Number of Bankable Infrastructure Projects in Africa Priority for AFC Live 2017

16 May 2017
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African Media Agency (New York)
press release

- Over 600 industry leaders join AFC for the continent's premier infrastructure summit -

- Keynote speakers including HE Yemi Osinbajo, Acting President of Nigeria, highlighted the need for African-led initiatives to bridge the infrastructure gap-

- Africa Finance Corporation celebrates 10 years of excellence in African infrastructure investment

Africa's premier infrastructure summit, AFC Live, has welcomed more than 600 leading thinkers from government, academia, business and finance and fuelled ground breaking debate on both the opportunities and the challenges of investing in infrastructure in Africa.

Keynote speakers including HE Yemi Osinbajo, Acting President of Nigeria, and Professor Chukwuma Soludo, the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, highlighted the need for African led-initiatives to drive the infrastructure revolution. HE the Acting President praised hosts Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) for bringing together the public and private sector to develop Africa's much-needed infrastructure projects and joined ministers of finance, trade and economy from Nigeria, The Gambia and Uganda respectivelyto debate some of the industry's key challenges and opportunities, including how to make infrastructure projects bankable.

Andrew Alli, President and Chief Executive of AFC who opened the Summit on Monday, commented on the importance of project development expertise in African infrastructure investment: "The earliest stage of conception and development of any project is crucial. Private capital will not come to invest in African infrastructure if projects are not sustainable and bankable.

"By focusing on supporting project development and using our local knowledge and sector expertise to identify and mitigate risks, we can help accelerate the number of viable, bankable projects across the continent, creating the market for other forms of capital to follow, and ultimately bridge the investment divide that currently exists."

Ian Bremmer, the President and Founder of Eurasia Group, will close proceedings this evening, highlighting how trends in the global economy will impact African markets over the next ten years.

AFC Live coincides with AFC's 10th anniversary, that sees the Corporation celebrating a decade of pioneering infrastructure investment and project development, over which it has invested approximately $4 billion across 30 countries.

At the summit, AFC also launched its pioneering infrastructure investment report in conjunction with Boston Consulting Group (BCG). The report proposes guidelines for the public and private sector for investing in infrastructure and highlights best practice case studies in the industry including Cenpower Kpone IPP, Ghana, and Henri Konan Bédié Bridge, Côte d'Ivoire.

The summit is sponsored by international law firm, Hogan Lovells; professional services company, KPMG; an international petroleum group, Petrolin Group; and leading credit and political risk Insurance Broker, Texel Finance Limited.

Distributed by Africa Media Agency (AMA) on behalf of Africa Finance Corporation.

Notes to Editors

About AFC - www.africafc.org

AFC is a dynamic, international investment grade multilateral finance institution whose mission it is to help bridge Africa's significant infrastructure gap whilst delivering competitive financial returns, robust economic growth and positive social impact.

Established in 2007 to be the catalyst for private sector infrastructure investment across Africa, AFC is now one of the highest investment grade rated multilateral financial institutions in Africa with an A3/P2 (Stable outlook) rating from Moody's Investors Service. A successful borrowing programme has raised more than US$3.5 billion for AFC's activities, including the Corporation's debut US$750 million Eurobond issue which was over 6 times oversubscribed. In terms of impact, AFC has invested approximately US$ 4 billion in projects across 28 African countries to date.

AFC's investment approach combines specialist industry expertise with a focus on financial and technical advisory, project structuring, project development and risk capital tailored to addressing Africa's unique infrastructure development needs in the core sectors of power, natural resources, heavy industry, transport, and telecommunications.

About AFC Live - www.afc-live.com

For more information on AFCLive2017, please contact media@afc-live.com

For more information contact:

Lucy Savage

Vice President, Communications

Tel: + 234 1 279 9600 Email: lucy.savage@africafc.org

Bell Pottinger

Victoria Geoghegan / Nick Lambert / David Bass / Philip Peck

Tel: +44 20 3772 2500 Email: list-afc@bellpottinger.com

Source: Africa Finance Corporation (AFC)

Read the original article on AMA.

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