His Excellency, Mr. Cyril Ramaphosa , President Of The Republic Of South Africa, And My Dear Brother
His Excellency P r esident Paul Kagame Of Rwanda
His Excellency P r esident Nana Akufo-Addo , Of Ghana
His Excellency President Filip Nyusi Of Mozambique Represented By Prime Minister Carlos Agostinho Do Rosario
His Excellency President John Mugufuli Of The United Republic Of Tanzania Represented By Minister Philip Mpango
His Excellency President Denis Sassou Nguesso Of The Republic Of Congo, Represented By Minister Jean Jacques Bouya
His Excellency President Felix Tshisekedi Of The Democratic Republic Of Congo Represented By Mr. Vital Kamerhe
Premier Of Gauteng Province, Hon. David Makhura
The Chairperson Of The African Union Commission Represented By Dr. Ibrahim Mayaki
Mr. Tito Mboweni, Minister Of Finance And African Development Bank Governor For South Africa
My Dear Big Sister, D r. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, Minister Of Cooperative Governance & Traditional Affairs
Honourable Ministers
Governors Of The African Development Bank
Executive Directors Of The African Development Bank
Heads Of Diplomatic Missions And International Organisations
Dear Partners
Ladies and Gentlemen
Good morning — and a very warm welcome to the 2019 Africa Investment Forum! Welcome to the beautiful city of Johannesburg, Africa’s number-one financial centre.
I wish to thank all the Heads of State and Government for your participation. A special thanks to President Cyril Ramaphosa , and the entire government of South Africa, for hosting us so generously again this year. I wish to also thank the Premier of Gauteng Province, David Makhura , and his team, for their generous hospitality.
Just a few moments ago, the Heads of State showcased to the world investment opportunities in their respective countries. Shortly, you will each be chairing boardrooms today as Chief Executive Officers of your countries, to speed up deals , help consolidate investment decisions and assure investors on investment and regulatory environments for their planned investments to thrive.
We are greatly honoured to have with us H.E. President Cyril Ramaphosa ; H.E President Nana Akufo Addo ; H.E. President Paul Kagame ; and Prime Minister Agostinho do Rosario .
When leaders decide, amazing things happen!
Your being here with us for the Africa Investment Forum sends a powerful signal to the world; that Africa means business! “ Not business as usual, but business unusual!” Thank you so much for taking time to be here!
I’d like to thank our founding partners of the Forum who are all here today: Africa50, Afrexim Bank, the Trade Development Bank, the Development Bank of South Africa, the Islamic Development Bank, the Africa Finance Corporation, the European Investment Bank , and all our sponsors , for their engagements and contributions.
Africa has been getting some very good news recently. The Prime Minister of Ethiopia, H.E. Abiy Ahmed, won the Nobel Peace Prize . South Africa’s Springboks, captained by Siya Kolisi, won the Rugby World Cup!
Congratulations President Ramaphosa! Congratulations South Africa!
A great son of Africa, Masai Ujiri , President of the Toronto Raptors won the NBA championship! And, Masai is right here with us in this Hall this morning, hopefully, with the NBA Championship Trophy!
Of course, Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya broke the marathon history running at under 2 hours!
Africa is rising — and Africa is shining! This is a new, more confident Africa. A continent now aware of its place in the world, and determined to be a global investment haven.
Economic growth rates are encouraging. This year, 37 countries in Africa experienced growth rates of 3 per cent and above. And guess what? Six of the ten fastest growing regions of the world are in Africa.
Commodity prices are recovering. Foreign direct investments in Africa increased in 2018 by 11 per cent, compared to 4 per cent in Asia, and a decline of 1 3 per cent, globally. So, Africa is doing well on investments, but it still needs a lot more!
Africa is ready to absorb a lot more of those investments. The risk perceptions of the continent, while high, are often exaggerated. And they do not match what data shows on risk and return performance on investments.
Consider this for a moment: The Moody’s Investor Service on project finance bank loans between 1983 and 2016 , shows that Africa has one of the lowest project default rates in the world ; much lower than Latin America, Asia, Eastern Europe, North America and Oceania.
Yet, investments are tilted to the regions with the much higher default rates. So, it is not about real risks. It is all about perceived risks.
Last year, when we gathered here for the inaugural Africa Investment Forum, we secured investment interests for deals valued at $38.7 billion — in less than 72 hours.
A lot of progress is being made on these investment interests, with a highly dedicated team of partners working around the clock to accelerate financial closure for transactions.
Just a few examples:
The Africa Infrastructure Investment Fund to speed up investments in agriculture was presented here last year. It sought $500 million; and $500 million equity has been closed.
Promise made, promise kept!
The Africa Guarantee Fund for investors sought $175 million to support Small and Medium Size Enterprises . The equity transaction has reached financial close.
Promise made, promise kept!
Here in South Africa , the beef agro-processing project , which sought $350 million has reached financial close.
The Alithea Identity Fund , a private equity fund specifically targeting women businesses, put up right here for $72 million, has reached financial close.
Promise made, promise kept!
I was excited to see the Mara Phones launched here last year at the Forum. Today, they are now being produced, with the establishment of manufacturing plants in South Africa and Rwanda .
Promise made, promise kept!
The railway project launched by Thelo DB to support Africa is advancing, and we will be discussing here the railway linking Tanzania, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Promise made, promise kept!
And, of course, we had here last year Masai Ujiri, President of the Toronto Raptors . He promised he would win the NBA championship . And guess what? He did!
Promise made, promise kept!
In Ghana, the $600 million transaction for COCOBOD , to help improve processing and value addition for cocoa has reached financial close here in Johannesburg. Congratulations, President Akufo-Addo !
Promise made, promise kept!
The Africa Investment Forum is not a talk shop: we deliver on concrete transactions!
Our teams are working hard, and on target, to accelerate the financial close of several investments before the end of the year and complete financial closure for all investments— an incredible achievement for so many complex transactions.
So we promise, so we deliver!
You will soon hear from three project sponsors who were here last year and how they progressed in their investments.
I am pleased that at the Forum, we focus on changing the investment narrative for Africa. Africa has rebranded itself — not as perceived by others, but for itself. Africa has repositioned itself.
And Africa is harnessing investors’ interests and investments. Welcome to the Africa Investment Forum, the place to be for investors.
If you can dream it, we can deliver it!
I am delighted that we have at the Forum several institutional investors, from Africa and outside of Africa. The size of the assets under management in Africa is over $1.8 trillion . Globally, assets under management exceed $145 trillion.
What’s needed to close the $68-108 billion annual infrastructure finance gap for Africa is to leverage institutional investors .
For that, we must develop more bankable projects, develop wider pools of risk mitigation instruments , and standardize our product offerings as multilateral development banks and financial institutions.
And we must do more on synthetic securitization to transfer risks on assets to the private sector, and balance short term and long-term objectives with risk-return profiles.
At the Forum this year, we look forward to getting more institutional investors to take stakes in bankable projects .
Africa offers an incredibly compelling investment case. The African Continental Free Trade Area opens up a combined market size of $3.3 trillion- the largest Free Trade Area since the establishment of the World Trade Organisation.
“Africa can no longer be ignored!”
The African Development Bank is geared up , more than ever, to help grow investments on the continent.
Almost two weeks ago, the Board of Governors of the African Development Bank approved a General Capital Increase of 125% for the Bank. This increased the capital of the Bank up by $115 billion , from $93 billion to $208 billion. This is the highest capital increase in the history of the Bank since its establishment in 1964 .
The very strong support of the Heads of State, Ministers of Finance and Governors of the Bank from all our 80 shareholder countries made this possible.
What a great achievement! What a historic moment for Africa!
With this wind behind our sail, the African Development Bank and its partners will do even more for Africa.
- We will support the private sector.
- We will de-risk investments more.
We will work with our partners to syndicate more and leverage our capital . Together, through the Africa Investment Forum, we will speed up the development of bankable projects, secure financing, and accelerate financial close for projects.
And we cannot wait to see more deals discussed this year in the boardrooms.
All the elements for a hugely successful Forum this year are in place:
- We’ve got you, the project developers and project promoters!
- We’ve got you, the Presidents and leaders of countries!
- We’ve got you, the leaders of global multilateral financial institutions, commercial banks and institutional investors!
One cannot ask for more!
I am highly confident that with you all, we will secure very strong investment interests across the transactions in the Boardrooms.
So, without taking any more time, let’s shift our focus to the investment Boardrooms. We are an action-driven Forum !
Now, let the transactions begin!
Welcome again! Thank you very much!
