AfDB Seeks $170b Fund for Africa

The African Development Bank seeks investments from global pensions and commercial financiers to help fund the continent’s infrastructure gap of as much as $170 billion a year. The Abidjan-based lender is launching its Africa Investment Forum in Johannesburg on Tuesday. The forum will host its first meeting in November in South Africa’s commercial hub and will have “no speeches,” but rather present bankable projects to investors, according to AfDB President Akinwumi Adesina, Bloomberg reported. The forum is “very unique”, Adesina said in an interview in Johannesburg on Monday. “It will not be a talk shop. No political speeches allowed—it’s 100% transactional.” The continent has an infrastructure funding gap of $87 billion to $112 billion annually, according to AfDB estimates. This strains economic growth in a region that is one of the world’s poorest, despite having vast mineral resources. Sub-standard roads, ports and airports add to the cost of exporting commodities and hamper intra-regional trade. The lender currently has a pipeline of $30 billion of projects to invest in, Adesina said.