May 3, 2017/AfDB
Africa investor (Ai), the international investment and communications group, and Africa50, the pan-African infrastructure fund, in partnership with the African Development Bank, will co-host the 3rd Ai CEO Infrastructure Project Developers Summit on May 3 in Durban, South Africa. The Summit will bring together CEO’s of leading project development companies, infrastructure financiers, and institutional investors to explore opportunities and innovative models to facilitate finance and investment in infrastructure project development in Africa.
While the continent is estimated to have an annual infrastructure financing gap of at least $50 billion, there is no shortage of capital available for viable, bankable projects. The challenge is creating the environment to encourage investors and project developers to take reasonable risks, and to engage effectively with public and private institutions that participate in the financing and development of projects at early stages.
Entitled, Establishing Project Development as an Asset Class, this unique CEO-level Summit will bring together over 200 key decision makers from across Africa’s project development and early stage finance community. They will discuss how to strengthen the project development ecosystem in Africa to better facilitate and unlock developer finance, and foment investment and co-development partnerships. For the first time, the event will bring together leading US and African pension and sovereign wealth fund investors, along with development finance institutions, to explore how to participate as venture or anchor investors in corporatized African project development platforms and funds.
Commenting on the Summit, Hubert Danso, CEO and Vice Chairman of Africa investor said, “Ai pioneered this first of its kind African project developer platform over three years ago. We brought together the African project development and early-stage finance community to explore co-development and co-investment partnerships. We are delighted to have contributed to the marked increase in venture and private equity-style investment in African private sector-led project development platforms, from both international and domestic investors, as well as development banks.” He added, “We are therefore pleased to partner in this event with the continent’s leading infrastructure project development and investment platform, Africa50.”
“There is substantial regional and global interest in African infrastructure today,” said Alain Ebobisse, CEO of Africa50. “However, one of the biggest challenges we see is that too few projects are ready to receive commercial financing. We want to encourage a greater focus on project development and the enabling environment for bankable projects, allowing modern infrastructure to be built more rapidly.”
Aside from the African Development Bank, the Summit is supported by IFC InfraVentures, the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), the Long Term Infrastructure Investors Association (LTIIA), the Global Listed Infrastructure Organisation (GLIO), the European Investment Bank (EIB), the International Project Finance Association (IPFA), the Berne Union, the ICA Project Preparation Facilities Network, Global Infrastructure Basel, the African Securities Exchanges Association (ASEA), Frost & Sullivan, the South African Federation of Civil Engineering Contractors (SAFCEC), the association of Consulting Engineers of South Africa (CESA), and Quadrant PR.
