The African Development Bank (AfDB) Group will today announce the outcome of $58 billion deal offers for 42 critical projects in Africa, including the proposed highway connecting Lagos to Abidjan through Cotonou, Lome and Accra as well as the Nigerian film academy.
The deals were curated by AfDB and opened to investors since Tuesday at the ongoing three-day Africa Investment Forum (AIF) Virtual Boardroom sessions.
President, African Development Bank Group, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, said the bankable projects would open up Africa to economic prosperity and make the continent great. Adesina described the sessions as a rare opportunity to “make deals”.
He said the projects curated include a $3.3 billion East Africa railway corridor connecting Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo as well as link Rwanda to Tanzania and a $15.6 billion transport corridor highway linking Lagos to Cotonou, Lome, Accra and Abidjan.
Others are $140 million film academy in Nigeria, $247 million special agro-industrial processing zones in northern Cote d’Ivoire, $545 million lithium mine project in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which will be critical for the global electric car industry and women-led businesses worth $5 billion.
The ex-Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture said he was excited about the opportunities for women-led projects as “Africa wins when women win”.
He noted: “We have several projects on renewable energy projects as well as in oil and gas. There are many more projects with high expectations.
“The AIF is a unique transaction platform where deals get done. It is Africa’s premier investment marketplace where the African Development Bank and its partners advance projects to bankable stages, raise capital and accelerate the closure of deals.”
Adesina recalled that the forum held in 2018 and 2019 attracted about $80 billion in investment interest to Africa.
He said the investments so financed are already changing the face of Africa in many ways while citing the $600 million deal for the Ghana cocoa pods signed during the 2019 edition.
He said this fund is already helping Ghana to be on track to expand its cocoa production by a million tonnes.
He also cited the $25 billion liquefied natural gas project deal in Mozambique closed during the forum in 2018, which he said has taken off.
Adesina said this deal will turn Mozambique into the third-largest producer of natural gas in the world.
“The future is brighter today for Mozambique, thanks to the support provided by other African countries, in particular by Rwanda, South Africa and other countries in the southern Africa region,” he added.
