African Investment Forum: AfDB eye $67 billion deals 

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Deals worth $67 billion would be sealed at the second edition of the African Investment Forum which started yesterday, November 11 in Johannesburg. This is according to Dr Akinwumi Adesina, the President, African Development Bank (AfDB).

What you should know: The expected $67 billion worth of deals is higher than the $43 billion deals recorded at the inaugural forum that began in November 2018. At the end of the 2018 forum, AFDB recorded $37 billion while Nigeria accounted $7 billion deals.

While giving the details of participants at the forum, Adesina disclosed that 2,086 participants came from 109 countries. He also noted that 61 out of those 109 countries were not from Africa.

59 transactions from several sectors, including energy, sanitation, water, infrastructure, agribusiness, private equity funds and ICT development were expected to be completed during the duration of the forum. Adesina also hinted that 29 countries which had submitted projects would benefit from the investments gathered.

Giving a breakdown of expected deals, Adesina ranked South Africa with the highest deal worth $36 billion, followed by Central Africa with $14 billion; West Africa, $10.5 billion, North Africa, $2.6 billion and $1.3 billion in East Africa.

All deals are to go through Telo DB, a South African company in charge of deals at the 3-day programme.

The AfDB President promised to invest $25 billion in the agriculture sector in Africa. According to him, the sector has long been neglected by Africans. He promised to use the forum to open new frontiers for development.

“We will work with our partners to syndicate more and leverage capital. Together, through the Africa Investment Forum, we will speed up the development of bankable projects, secure financing, and accelerate financial close for projects.”

About the Africa Investment Forum

The Africa Investment Forum is Africa’s investment market place —a multi-stakeholder, multi-disciplinary platform dedicated to advancing projects to bankable stages, raising capital, and accelerating the financial closure of deals.