AfDB, partners burnish Africa as next frontier for global investors 

• Showcase continent’s value chain at AIF
• AIF raises $34.82bn investment interest
• Plus $3bn off boardroom raise
• $177.42bn now raised in 5-years
• $11bn deals closed completely – Adesina
• Africa next frontier for global investors

Africa’s economic landscape as the next frontier for global investments was on song for three days last week in Marrakech, Morocco, where the African Development Bank (AfDB) led by President Akinwumi Adesina of Nigeria, and its development partners successfully showcased the continent’s value chains to international investors, attracting more than 1000 delegates to what is now globally recognised as a go-to annual event for serious financial deals closure, the Africa Investment Forum (AIF) Market Days.

To underscore its now global attraction and success, this year’s AIF’s Market Days had no fewer than 80 Japanese companies including at least 50 business leaders, entrepreneurs and investors among the over 1000 delegates in attendance.

At a side event, “Boosting Africa’s Growth with Japan”, Adesina drew attention to the growth of the number of Japanese companies in Africa from 520 in 2010 to 900 in 2020, and named companies such as Degas in Ghana which is helping farmers with satellite data analytics; Kepple Africa Ventures investing in African private equity funds; and Uncovered Fund, a venture capital fund that has invested in 26 African start-ups.

“The sum of these testimonials is that Africa is bankable,” Adesina said, adding that, “Africa needs more venture capital and private equity funds to tap into Africa’s huge potential. And Japan is paying attention.”

He stated that the Association of Japanese Corporate Executives, Keizai-Doyukai, is at the forefront of mobilising and galvanising investment interests from Japan to Africa.

With the AIF event designed to advance projects to bankable stages, raise capital and accelerate deals to financial closure, the real success for Adesina and his AfDB partners would be the highlighted ability of this year’s Market Days to raise $34.82 billion in  investment interest within 72 hours and bring cumulative investment interest in the five years of its existence to $177.42 billion. 

Analysts say the huge amount appears to be investors’ response to the theme of this year’s Market Days, “Unlocking Africa’s Value Chain,” adding that the package of bankable projects curated for the event truly unlocked the opportunities in Africa to investors.

The specific and full stack of projects where investors have placed their bets would become better known in the coming days, but already, we know of a power transmission project with a PPP (public-private partnership) component that has been secured; a $600 million ports project; a railway project, among others.

President Adesina spoke of the greatness of Africa, stressing that “the uniqueness of Africa makes it the attraction of the world.”

He provided statistics, including the fact that 25 percent of the population is young, energetic and vibrant. Adesina also drew attention to the fact that the continent of Africa has the largest sources of solar power, and can easily do 350 gigawatts of hydro power, 150 gigawatts of wind power, and 50 gigawatts of geothermal power.

“God loves Africa,” he said, adding, “We have all of that, so Africa is the frontier when it comes to investments in renewable energy.”

Adesina also noted that Africa is a continent with 54 countries all connected together with formidable economic zones and a gross domestic product (GDP) that is worth $3.4 trillion, and he asked if there were places in the world where investors can go and find such.

He also asked where investors can go in the world that accounts for 65 percent of the uncultivated arable land likely to feed 9.5 billion people in the world in 2050, except in Africa. 

“Everybody gets so excited about electric vehicles. The value of that today is about $7 trillion. That’s going to rise to about $57 trillion by 2050. People may want to drive electric cars but electric cars can’t move without green metals. Africa accounts for 70 percent of the  platinum in the world, 56 percent of cobalt in the world. Manganese, lithium and ions. So, what we do with [all of] that is going to impact the world,” said the AfDB president.

He also mentioned Africa’s youthful population, 477 million young people between the ages of 15 and 35, a demographic not seen in many places in the world, he said, adding that this was the Africa that AIF founded by AfDB and its partners, gets together to promote and project.

According to him, it is a different kind of Africa that investors are seeing today, noting that “it’s an Africa that knows its place, an Africa that has strong financial institutions, an Africa that knows that together there’s absolutely no pressure or obstacles that we as partners cannot handle for Africa.”

He said the AfDB and its partners are ready to thrust Africa forward to take advantage of all the things mentioned, noting that there are potentials, but that nobody eats potentials. “We have to unlock that potential. That’s what brings us together.

He said there were business leaders around the world looking at different issues, and that what was important was that the narrative is changing. The faith and the confidence and the belief in the continent is high, Adesina said, adding that the financial institutions in Africa believe they have the financial muscle and are ready to put Africa forward, never at the bottom of the value chain.

“Africa will be in and towards the top of the value chain. Africa is no longer going to be at the bottom of the value chain. Whether it’s coffee, whether it’s cocoa, whether it’s cotton, whether it’s base metals, whether it’s oil, whether it’s gas, whether it’s minerals, whatever it is, Africa will not play second fiddle again,” Adesina stressed.

Transactions for the Market Days were sourced from the investment pipelines of the Africa Investment Forum’s partners, comprising African Development Bank, Africa50, Africa Finance Corporation, Afreximbank, Development Bank of Southern Africa, European Investment Bank, Islamic Development Bank, and Trade and Development Bank.