HELPING AFRICA TO BUILD UP CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE
Decades of steady progress have been undone by the COVID-19 pandemic, while demands across various sectors remain huge.
African states need support in developing key infrastructure to fully tap into their vast natural resources and economic potential. Despite decades of steady progress, the continent’s economic activity, growth and productivity are still constrained by a lack of modern infrastructure – especially in energy, water, transport and communication. According to the World Bank, the development of much-needed African infrastructure was responsible for more than half of the continent’s economic growth rate in the decade before the COVID-19 pandemic. Global supply chain disruptions and rising costs in the aftermath of the pandemic have now stymied this upward trend, further widening the continent’s infrastructure funding gap.
address infrastructure needs across the continent. In 2022, the OPEC Fund provided a loan of US$50 million to the AFC to finance the development of infrastructure critical to economic growth and job creation. This followed a 10-year loan approved in 2021. The proceeds of the new loan will be used to improve connectivity, transport, logistics, trade and to boost access to energy. The AFC utilized some of the proceeds to invest in a ¤414 million syndicated loan facility that will finance the rehabilitation and construction of transportation and building projects in Côte d’Ivoire. It is expected that the projects will lead to a significant reduction in transportation times, improved mobility and accessibility across the country and positive economic growth and development.
The AFC has enjoyed a long-standing partnership with the OPEC Fund and we are delighted to collab- orate again to support the work we do in developing critical infrastructure in Africa. Developed and developing countries alike are battling the chronic challenges brought on by a wave of global shocks, and these challenges will only be solved by working together through partnership and engagement between the world’s leading finance institutions.
SAMAILA ZUBAIRU AFC President & CEO
The OPEC Fund and the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) are cooperating to provide financing solutions to
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