Business
African Development Bank to Launch $3 billion USD Infrastructure Fund
Africa50 is to be structured as a developmentally-oriented yet commercially operated entity. It will be complementary to and legally independent of existing development finance bodies in Africa. Accordingly, the operational decisions will be made by a management team selected solely on technical merit and demonstrated managerial competence.
Africa50 will establish two business segments. Project Development with an objective of increasing the number of bankable infrastructure projects in Africa. This will be accomplished through substantially increased funding of early stage project development activities, made possible by innovative partnerships and incentive schemes.
Furthermore, Africa50 will make skilled legal, technical and financial experts available to projects from an early stage of development, sharing costs with member governments and developers and recovering its funding at financial close or through a carried interest in the project.
Project Finance will focus on delivering the financial instruments required to attract additional infrastructure financing to the continent. These will include, but will not be limited to: i) bridge equity, ii) senior secured loans, iii) refinancing/secondary transactions, as well as iv) credit enhancement and other risk mitigation measures geared at attracting non-traditional funders such as institutional investors and international investment banks.
Source: CNBC Africa
