Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
The African Union (AU), the African Development Bank Group (AfDB), and Africa50—in partnership with several global partners—have launched the Alliance for Green Infrastructure in Africa (AGIA), an initiative to help scale and accelerate financing for green infrastructure projects in Africa.
The alliance is seeking to raise up to $500 million of early-stage project preparation and development capital with the goal of boosting project bankability and generating up to $10 billion in investment opportunities for the private sector.
The collaborating global partners working with the lead partners are the African Union Development Agency, the European Investment Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the French Development Agency, The Rockefeller Foundation, the US Trade and Development Agency, the Global Center on Adaptation, the Private Infrastructure Development Group, and the African Sovereign Investors Forum.
The launch ceremony took place on the sidelines of the ongoing 27th annual global climate summit (COP27) in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.
The Alliance’s mission is to raise significant capital to accelerate Africa’s just and equitable transition to Net Zero emissions. It has two strategic objectives. The first is to generate a robust pipeline of bankable transformational projects. The second is to catalyze financing at scale and speed for Africa’s infrastructure.
The target, if and when reached, will be mobilized from a combination of co-investments, co-financing, risk mitigation and blended finance provided by Alliance members. This capital will also be drawn from other financial institutions and foundations, public and private global and African institutional investors, project sponsors, multilateral development banks’ sovereign operations, and from G-20 bilateral donors.
Speaking on this development, AfDB President Mr Akinwumi Adesina said: “The AGIA platform is a new platform that is fully aligned with the global call of the G7 leaders in June this year when they called for the partnership on global infrastructure and investment to mobilize $600 billion in infrastructure by 2027, especially to support sustainable, quality and climate-resilient infrastructure.”
Mr Adesina added: “We need you all, as the needs in Africa are simply enormous. Only by working together and pooling our resources together can we make transformative impacts and set Africa on a clear path to achieving NetZero emissions and mitigating climate change. Africa needs infrastructure financing, estimated at between $130 billion to $170 billion a year, with an infrastructure financing gap of up to $108 billion a year.
“But most of the infrastructure for Africa is yet to be built. This presents an enormous opportunity to get it right. Build green infrastructure that is climate-smart, and that is climate-resilient.”
African Union Commissioner for Energy and Infrastructure, Mr Amani Abou-Zeid, said: “As African institutions, we must focus on early-stage project preparation, de-risking interventions, and building a robust business environment to attract investors from all parts of the world. We want to galvanize around priority projects that combine all our efforts to deliver. We must now intensify our efforts and move faster and at scale.”
Africa50 CEO, Mr Alain Ebobissé, said: “I’m excited about AGIA’s mandate. It’s an initiative that is results-oriented, rapidly scaling projects from the concept stage to bankability. I look forward to partnering with more development institutions and private sector players within Africa and globally to leverage additional resources, so we can deploy the $10 billion we have set as a target for AGIA’s green, sustainable infrastructure investments.”
In his closing remarks, former Britain Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair said: “We are only going to solve this problem by taking strong actions which are based on practical plans and implementation. It is important for governments to grow in a sustainable way. The question is not just how we manage to get the finance and investment into Africa but also how governments themselves prepare for the absorption of that finance, and that’s the other side of the equation, and that is why project preparation is so important.
“It’s always a partnership. I don’t think the problem is a lack of will or appetite on the part of Africa’s people or their governments. It’s a question of organization, of getting the right elements in place to make the vision a reality. And if I learnt anything in government, it’s that the hardest thing is to get things done. We can write reports and have great visions. But ultimately, it’s about implementation.”
