Business
African Development Bank working to raise $100 billion to finance massive infrastructure projects on the continent
Image/Courtesy African Development Bank
The African Development Bank in working to raise US$100 billion to finance bankable infrastructure projects across the continent, a senior bank official has said.
According to the bank’s regional director for East Africa Gabriel Negatu, approximately half of the fund would be raised by digging into the foreign currency reserves of willing states among the 53-member countries on the African continent. The balance of the funds will come from borrowing from global markets and could help finance regional railway, ports and electricity projects in Africa.
Negatu was addressing business executives from across the continent in Kenya’s coastal city of Mombasa at the fourth Africa Governance, Leadership and Management Conference, a think-tank organised by the Africa Leadership Forum.
The US$ 100 billion fund is expected to be operational within the next 3 years and could help finance the proposed new port at Kenya’s second largest coastal town, Lamu, the planned US$11 billion harbor at Bagamoyo in Tanzania, and the standard gauge railway line from Mombasa to Kigali in Rwanda through Uganda.
Conference participants were informed that prudent macro-economic management, a boom in resource exports and pro-business reforms had driven growth in Africa over the last decade with half of the continent now enjoying per capita incomes of more than US$1,000 per year.
He said although Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) was up five-fold since 2000, the cost of starting a business had dropped by more than two-thirds and delays halved in the last five years, the growth had not been felt by many. “This growth is not felt by all Africans and has not been inclusive,” Negatu said. “The rising tide has not lifted all boats.”
The conference is looking at ways of accelerating growth and intra-African trade and partnerships, under the theme “Opening up Africa to Africa”. Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, said political leaders had driven the African integration agenda over the last 50 years and that while they needed to continue showing commitment and involvement, the private sector must “seize the wheel” and drive the process. “The process of integration is too important to be left in government hands alone,” he said.
