Infrastructure News

Africa Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM) is investing $31m (€27m) for a minority stake in solar systems business to help expand off-grid solar electricity into parts of east and central Africa.

To date, African nations have relied overwhelmingly on public funding to build their current infrastructure layer. But if Africa ever hopes to bridge its massive infrastructure gap, it needs to let in more private investment.

The African Development Bank is to invest up to US$ 25 million in the Africa Renewable Power Fund (ARPF), a US$ 250 million private equity fund for renewable energy projects across Sub-Saharan Africa. ARPF will provide equity for the development and construction of 10 to 15 greenfield renewable energy projects in Sub-Saharan Africa, adding approximately 533MW of installed energy generation capacity from renewable sources in the region.

Carbon should be priced into infrastructure projects, not only to help protect the environment but also to attract more private money towards filling the world’s one trillion dollar-a year infrastructure gap.

Infrastructure is key to achieving the robust economic growth, and to enable emerging market economies to make the most of their opportunities.

Africa’s general economic performance continues to recover and GDP growth is projected to accelerate to 4.0 percent in 2019 and 4.1 percent in 2020. But improved macroeconomic and employment outcomes require industry to lead growth, according to the 2019 African Economic Outlook report, launched today by the African Development Bank.

Africa’s demand for energy is steadily increasing and solutions to meet this growth have become a major concern amongst the energy sector leaders within the continent