African Development Bank, Nigerian tycoon unveil $500m fund

By STANDARD REPORTER

The African Development Bank (AfDB) and Made in Africa Foundation have launched a $500 million fund to co-manage and market initiatives to attract new infrastructural investment for the continent.

The launch which took place at the NASDAQ in New York last week, was attended by Hollywood actor Jamie Foxx, Head of Infrastructure Finance for the African Development Bank Tas Anvaripour, Quintin Primo III who is the Chairman of the fund’s financial partners, Capri Capital, and MIAF CEO Chris Cleverly.

The fund represents the project development unit of Africa50 – Africa’s largest infrastructure development vehicle created to date – and plans to secure the $500 million by the first half of 2014 with $250 million raised so far.

Made in Africa Foundation was co-founded by Nigerian billionaire Kola Aluko, and Ghanaian-born fashion designer, Ozwald Boateng

According to a statement by Afdb, the NASDAQ event was followed by a luncheon hosted by Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., publisher of The New York Times, where the African Development Bank Group President, Donald Kaberuka, delivered a video message on Africa50.

Discussion on Africa’s newest infrastructure delivery vehicle involved participation by African business leaders, American investors, Patrick Zhong of the Fosun Group in China and former UK Foreign Minister and International Rescue Committee CEO David Miliband.

Africa50 will comprise two funding arms: Project Development and Project Financing.

At a recent meeting of African Central Banks in Mauritius, AfDB President Donald Kaberuka (pictured) explained that “to increase the rate of infrastructure delivery in Africa there is need to speed up project preparation and project development.

Shorten the time

“The critical objective is to shorten the time between the idea and financial close from a current average of seven years to less than three years,” he said.

Kola Aluko, a successful Nigerian oilman, has said in the past that the solution to Africa’s problems is not charity in terms of building schools or hospitals, which sometimes are not sustainable.

“These projects happen and then they are left in incapable hands and they are not commercially driven. As a consequence, most of them will go on for as long as the money has been given lasts and beyond that they slowly dilapidate and slowly die,” he said.

According to AfDB having closed over 40 large infrastructure private sector projects in the past five years, it strongly believes in the infrastructure opportunities latent in the African continent.