Financing Investment in Africa

ALER was present at the Financing Investment in Africa event which took place on February 27 in Centro Cultural de Belém, in Lisbon.

Organized by CIP – Confederation of Portuguese Industry, in cooperation with EIB -European Investment Bank and SOFID – Society for Financing for Development the objective of the event was to present the EIB financing instruments for the ACP region, intended for European companies.

The program included a welcome note from the President of CIP, António Saraiva; the President of the Executive Board of SOFID, Marta Mariz and the Head of Office of European Investment Bank in Lisbon, Kim Kreilgaard.

The first part was dedicated to the presentation of EIB activities outside the European Union and some of the less known activities such as consulting and internships for African students. Was also presented the EIB Lending to the Private Sector, such as the d.ligh example, an off-grid solar accelerator which gave access to energy to 6 million people. Paolo Munini mentioned that until now EIB has not had much of a presence in the Lusophone countries but would like to support more projects in the future.

Some success cases of project financing were presented such as Scaling Solar in Zambia, Khi Solar One, the first solar concentrator installed in Africa or the Africa Energy Guarantee facility, among others.

DG-DEVCO was also present at the event, presenting the EU External Investment Plan, that between 2017 and 2018 financed 28 projects totalizing 4,5 billion euros. Currently promotion sessions are being developed, the next one will be in Luanda between March 11 to 15.

The United Nations Capital Development Fund presented SMEs as strategic drivers of African socio-economic transformation and SOFID finalized emphasizing its role and Instruments in supporting private investment in Developing Countries and Emerging Markets, as InvestimoZ or the Lusophone compact.

The event closed with a discussion panel on the theme How can we strengthen EU-ACP Relations?, in which took part CIP, EIB, EDP International and Mota-Engil Africa. Carlos Madeira from EDP International highlight the importance of reducing the market volatility and to increase confidence in order to have more investment in Africa, it was also referred the importance of project bankability.

For more information on the event please see the website.