Investors and partners of the African Investment Forum are working on closing investment transactions worth $67bn at the second edition of the forum, which kicked off on Monday in Johannesburg.
The President, African Development Bank, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, disclosed this at a press conference on Monday to announce the beginning of the forum.
The $67bn worth of transactions is $24bn more than the $43bn projects that the first edition of the forum opened with in November 2018. The 2018 forum ended with $37bn worth of deals, and Nigeria accounted for $7bn 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 $36bn were located in Southern Africa; $14bn in Central Africa; $10.5bn in West Africa; $2.6bn in North Africa, and $1.3bn 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.”
