Global investors, African leaders meet to negotiate billion-dollar projects

From Nigeria to Kenya and South Africa to Libya, dozens of life-changing and investable projects have been curated and lined up for boardroom discussions and, possibly, deal-making at this year’s African Investment Forum (AIF)’s Market Days 2022 held in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, from tomorrow through Friday.

The forum will feature deals in the energy, transport, infrastructure, and agribusiness sectors and transactions that benefit women considerably and with high social impacts.

The transactions, according to the organisers, will be sourced from the investment pipelines of the AIF’s eight founding partners.

The partners are the African Development Bank (Africa 50), the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), the African Export-Import Bank, the Development Bank of Southern Africa, the Trade and Development Bank, the European Investment Bank and the Islamic Development Bank.

From its inception in 2018, AIF has mobilised investment commitments in excess of $100 billion in agriculture, energy, infrastructure and other high-impact sectors to help unlock the regional economy.

At the three-day session, transformational projects are expected to be matched with investors, transactions curated and deals advanced to closure.

The Market Days physically convenes investors, project sponsors, professional service providers and key government officials at a bespoke platform for transactional conversations.

Activities that make the yearly event remarkable are boardroom sessions, which bring investors, project sponsors, stakeholders and key government officials together to attract investment interest in curated deals.

There is a deal gallery displaying projects not discussed in boardrooms or business-to-business (B2B) sessions on screen for investors’ consideration.

The Market Days also makes provision for start-ups pitching sessions to connect early-stage ventures with investors, mentors and ecosystem partners.

At B2B meetings, investors and project sponsors meet to explore opportunities for partnerships. There are also plenary and parallel sessions for discussing thematic and contemporary issues relating to investment opportunities in Africa as well as economic development issues.

Last year, 79 projects valued at $57.8 billion originated from 26 countries while projects worth $53.9 billion were discussed at 41 boardroom sessions. Thirty-one bankable projects valued at $32.8 billion, according to AIF, drew the interest of investors.

Deals previously matched by AIF and closed include Nigeria’s Infrastructure Credit Guarantee (InfraCredit), Togo’s Lomé New Thermal Power Plan, Facility for Energy Inclusion, South Africa’s Beef Agroprocessing Project, African Infrastructure Investment Fund and Rwanda’s Gabiro Agri-Business Hub (Phase 1).