The African Development Bank has made a strategic equity investment of $10 million in Dhamana Guarantee Company, a Nairobi-based provider of guarantees to support sustainable growth enterprises. This follows an anchor investment from the UK-Government-backed Private Infrastructure Development Group through its subsidiary, InfraCo Africa.
Dhamana will also receive equity investments from County Pension Fund Financial Services (CPF), and technical assistance support from and Financial Sector Deepening Africa (FSD Africa) and Cardano Development.
Solomon Quaynor, African Development Bank Vice president for Private Sector, Infrastructure & Industrialisation, attended a ceremony in Nairobi to sign agreements relating to the African Development Bank's equity investment in Dhamana Guarantee Company.
Dhamana will support access to financing for key sectors including transport, water, renewable energy, and waste management. It is also committed to catalysing green and sustainable financing into East Africa, providing credit guarantees to stimulate private institutional investment in infrastructure."
By targeting businesses that improve citizen's daily lives, Dhamana will enhance access to affordable finance, reduce the capital needed for projects, and advance progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
In his remarks at the ceremony, Quaynor said, "The African Development Bank's equity investment in Dhamana reinforces the catalytic role and potential of credit enhancement companies in leveraging opportunities for infrastructure financing in local currency. We intend to replicate this business model in appropriate markets across Africa with partners such as the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) and others."
He noted that the first example of this type of credit enhancement company was InfraCredit in Nigeria which has demonstrated success. "The investment in Dhamana aligns with the Bank's priority to mobilise financing through innovative vehicles from African institutional funds including pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and insurance companies for infrastructure development in Africa," Quaynor said.
InfraCo Africa CEO Gilles Vaes represented PIDG. He said, "Building on the success of other PIDG-supported credit enhancement facilities in Nigeria and Pakistan, Dhamana will demonstrate the value of such a facility in the East African market, opening up opportunities for investors and clients alike. Crucially, Dhamana will engage new partners and investors in our efforts to urgently address the climate crisis and accelerate delivery of the UN Sustainable Development Goals."
Dhamana CEO Christopher Olobo said, "With the support of our investors and supporters, the Private Infrastructure Development Group, Cardano Development, FSD Africa, CPF Financial Services, and the African Development Bank, we have worked to develop Dhamana as an important catalyst for long-term sustainable finance in the region. Dhamana's local currency guarantees will connect pools of untapped capital with East Africa's real economy, making a tangible difference to people's lives and offering local investors the opportunity to invest in Paris-aligned initiatives."
About Dhamana
Dhamana Guarantee Company (Dhamana): Dhamana is working to catalyse the development of domestic capital markets in East Africa. It does this by connecting significant under-utilised sources of domestic institutional capital with the real economy, such as new green infrastructure, and providers of credit to businesses. This increases access and the affordability of local capital, providing new low-risk opportunities for local investors. Dhamana will also serve to provide a portfolio of businesses with access to the local currency capital needed to deliver bankable projects, meeting the high demand for new affordable housing, transportation, water, and energy infrastructure, and promoting long term economic development.
About PIDG
The Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) is an innovative infrastructure project developer and investor which mobilises private investment in sustainable and inclusive infrastructure in sub-Saharan Africa and south and south-east Asia. PIDG investments promote socio-economic development within a just transition to net zero emissions, combat poverty and contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). PIDG delivers its ambition in line with its values of pioneering, partnership, safety, inclusivity and urgency. PIDG offers Technical Assistance for upstream, early-stage activities and concessional capital; its project development arm - which includes InfraCo Africa and InfraCo Asia - invests in early-stage project development and project and corporate equity. PIDG credit solutions include EAIF (the Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund), one of the first and more successful blended debt funds in low-income markets; GuarantCo, its guarantee arm that provides credit enhancement and local currency solutions to de-risk projects; and a growing portfolio of local credit enhancement facilities, which unlocks domestic institutional capital for infrastructure financing. Since 2002, PIDG has supported 233 infrastructure projects to financial close, which provided an estimated 228 million people with access to new or improved infrastructure. PIDG is funded by the governments of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Australia, Sweden, Global Affairs Canada, Germany, and the IFC.
