With a $2 billion facility, AFC aids Africa’s economic recovery.
Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) is launching a $2 billion facility to promote recovery and resilience in Africa as a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
The African Finance Corporations (AFC) has committed to funding up to half of the new African Economic Resilience Facility and mobilizing the rest through its network of foreign partners and investors.
This was revealed on Thursday at the AFC Live Infrastructure Solutions Summit in Abuja.
The facility would be disbursed through AFC loans to selected commercial banks, regional development banks, and central banks in several African countries, providing them with much-needed hard currency liquidity to finance trade and other economic operations. The institutions are anticipated to take use of AFC’s established worldwide fundraising network to obtain funds at competitive rates.
“The COVID-19 pandemic set Africa’s economic growth trajectory back and widened the trade financing gap, while the Russia-Ukraine conflict has added a new set of challenges negatively impacting growth prospects across the continent,” said Banji Fehintola, the organization’s head of treasury and financial institutions. We are committed to playing a key role in Africa’s recovery and resilience, not just through our work in bridging the continent’s infrastructure gap, but also through focused interventions like this $2 billion economic resilience facility.”
The African Economic Resilience Facility will open for applications this month on the African Development Bank’s website (www.africafc.org), the bank announced at the ongoing conference.
The money will help AFC accelerate its development effect in Africa, assisting in the continent’s transition to a new phase of growth focused on maximizing resource value capture and creating domestic jobs.
AFC has gained experience mobilizing global funding for important infrastructure projects in Africa over the last 15 years. A $750 million 7-year Eurobond issued in 2021 at AFC’s lowest yield to date was among the Corporation’s recent bond issuance. AFC Capital Partners, the Corporation’s independent asset management arm, has ambitions to raise $2 billion to fund climate adaption infrastructure projects in Africa.
The firm claims to have invested $10 billion in projects in 35 African nations to far.
