The high degree of investment commitments, and the successful yielding of US $31 billion in investment interest at the recently held Africa Investment Forum Market Days in Abidjan, proved once again, why the AIF is a leading and important platform in Africa’s development trajectory. A platform which is also ardently committed to inclusivity and putting African women at the center of its programs through initiatives such as the Women as Investment Champions.
Championed by the African Development Bank (AfDB) and its partners, the AIF is Africa’s premier investment marketplace, which seeks to close the continent’s investment gaps. It operates as a multi-stakeholder, multi-disciplinary platform dedicated to advancing projects to bankable stages, raising capital, and accelerating the financial closure of deals.
Its strategic vision is to tilt the balance of capital towards the aim of achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and AU’s Agenda 2063. Within this mandate, is a strong focus on improving African women’s access to financing and capital.
The third since its inception in 2018, this year’s Africa Investment Forum Market Days took place in the Ivorian capital between 2-4 November under the theme: ‘Building Economic Resilience through Sustainable Investments.” The $31 billion, drawn from both African and global investors, combined with $32.8 billion from the rescheduled 2021 Africa Investment Forum Market days—which took place as virtual boardrooms in March 2022, means that the Forum has now mobilized a total of $63.8 billion of investment interest this year alone.
Since 2018, the AIF platform has mobilized over $100 billion in investment interests.
“A lot of the successes recorded by the Africa Investment Forum are domiciled in the spirit of the partnership. It’s up to us to ensure the continent is what it ought to be,” says AIF’s Senior Director Chinelo Anohu, who is also behind the ‘Women as Investment Champions’ initiative, for which her passion is evident as shown in her recent interview with the African Business magazine in which she stated: “Women as Investment Champions… is something I am proud of….We are helping to channel monies to women-led businesses with a gender lens. We have a dozen deals on our platform starting from $2m – a shear butter business – to a multi-billion refinery business…This is something we are incredibly proud of and when we talk about women in business, we are helping make it a reality. We’re helping create scale and impact.”
The Abidjan event showcased the AIF’s founding partners’ joint resolve to help unleash Africa’s investment potential in such critical sectors as infrastructure, agriculture, energy, education, the creative industries, sports, and transactions that champion women entrepreneurs, read a statement released at the end of the three-day event. It adds: “the results this year have exceeded expectations, given that the world is currently grappling with so many unprecedented economic challenges.”
Indeed, the AIF Market Days event took place in the continued glare of the global economic challenges that have been compounded by the impacts of climate change, the Covid-19 pandemic, and the Russia-Ukraine war.
The event attracted the participation of several African heads of state and government. Among those who attended, chaired boardrooms, and led transactions with potential investors, included host country Côte d’Ivoire’s Vice President Tiémoko Meyliet Koné, who represented President Alassane Ouattara.
Others were President Sahle-Work Zewde of Ethiopia; President Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana; President Emmerson Mnangagwa of Zimbabwe; Vice President Jewel Howard Taylor of Liberia; Vice President Philip Mpango of Tanzania; Prime Minister José Ulisses Correia e Silva n of Cabo Verde; and Prime Minister Patrick Achi of Côte d’Ivoire.
The forum’s founding partners are the African Development Bank (AfDB), Africa50, Afreximbank, the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), the European Investment Bank (EIB), the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), and the Trade and Development Bank (TDB).
African Development Bank President Dr. Akinwumi Adesina commended the forum’s outcomes and the partners’ commitment saying: “Despite the challenges, we are not afraid, and neither have we despaired nor lost hope. We are excited and committed to a collective goal… accelerating the closure of deals to transform Africa and its investment landscape.”
He added in a final statement to the media, that the Africa Investment Forum’s focus is to attract more foreign direct investment to Africa and ensure the private sector remains the driving force of that transformation.
“The private sector is Africa’s growth accelerator. We must mitigate real and perceived risks and persuade the private sector that investing in Africa is safe,” he emphasized.
