AfDB, Investors Plan To Close $67bn Deals

Investors and partners of the African Investment Forum are working on closing investment transactions worth $67 billion at the second edition of the forum, which kicked off on Monday in Johannesburg.
The President, African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr Akinwumi Adesina, disclosed this at a press conference on Monday to announce the beginning of the forum.
The $67 billion worth of transactions is $24 billion more than the $43 billion projects that the first edition of the forum opened with in November 2018. The 2018 forum ended with $37 billion worth of deals, and Nigeria accounted for $7 billion transactions.
Adesina said 2,086 participants drawn from 109 countries across the world were participating at the forum, adding that 61 of the participating countries were not from Africa.
According to the AfDB boss, 59 transactions across several sectors, including energy, sanitation, water, infrastructure, agribusiness, private equity funds and ICT development, are expected to be sealed within the three-day duration of the forum.
He said investments were expected to happen in 29 countries that had submitted projects.
Adesina said, “We are trying to make sure that investments go into low-income and fragile states.”
Giving a regional analysis of the prospective deals, Adesina said $36 billion were located in Southern Africa; $14 billion in Central Africa; $10.5 billion in West Africa; $2.6 billion in North Africa, and $1.3 billion in East Africa.
He named Telo DB, a South African company, as the champion company for investment deals within the forum.
Answering a question on agriculture, the AfDB boss said although agriculture was a big business, it had been treated with little concern in the continent.
He said because of the special place agriculture should occupy in the continent, the AfDB would invest $25bn in the sector in the next 10 years.
In an opening remark, Adesina said, “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.”