The African Investment Forum organised by the African Development Bank (AfDB) in partnership with Africa Export-Import (Afrexim) Bank and African Finance Corporation has yielded a total of $36.2 billion from 43 investment deals for the entire continent.
East African states stand to benefit from at least $8.77 billion worth of investments in transport, healthcare, energy, and agriculture. The region’s largest inked deal is the $3.3 billion railway corridor that will run from Dar es Salaam through Bujumbura to Kinshasa in DRC, with an extension to Kigali. This will be done as a public-private partnership project.
The Africa Investment Forum also yielded an unspecified amount to facilitate vaccine production in Kenya and agricultural investment to improve East Africa’s food security.
West Africa got the largest share of all the investment deals; a four to six lane highway connecting four countries that will cost $15.6 billion. The highway will run from Lagos in Nigeria, through Lorne in Togo and Accra in Ghana, to Abidjan in Cote d’Ivore.
The highway is expected to support 75% of the trade in the west African region, reduce transport cost by 48%, increase inter- and intra-regional trade volume by 15 to 25%, and impact the lives of over 500 million people.
Central African countries will get $4.27 billion, Southern Africa will get $5.44 billion, and North Africa will get $804 million.
The energy sector will get investments worth $19.44 billion, the largest share throughout the continent. This includes development of liquefied natural gas infrastructure, expansion of renewable energy sources, and to develop electric vehicles manufacturing infrastructure.
The agriculture sector will benefit from $9.868 billion worth of investment, healthcare will get $452 million, and creative industries $1.5 billion, which includes a $5 million film academy to be set up in Nigeria.
Women-led businesses will receive a boost of $4.94 billion in investments from the forum, out of which $1 billion will be used to set up a women’s advisory facility by the AfDB.
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