African Development Bank joins Global Infrastructure Facility as Technical Partner
20 June 2018
View original article on the AFDB site.
Africa’s infrastructure financing needs are huge. Innovative partnerships are needed to bridge the financing gap and accelerate infrastructure development in Transport, ICT, Water and Energy, that are considered as drivers for growth, regional integration and industrialization.
It is in this optic that the African Development Bank Group signed a Financial Procedures Agreement with the World Bank Group (the GIF Trustee) on 18th of April 2018 as Technical Partner of the Global Infrastructure Facility (GIF).
Launched in 2015, the Global Infrastructure Facility is a partnership platform among governments, multilateral development banks, private sector investors, and financiers designed to support emerging markets to develop infrastructure economy by providing a new way to collaborate on preparing, structuring, and implementing complex projects that no single institution could handle on its own. GIF also supports governments in bringing well-structured and bankable infrastructure projects to markets.
GIF Technical partners are entities who have signed the FPA with the GIF Trustee in order to lead or participate in implementing GIF Activities. Current GIF technical Partners include: Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank; Asian Development Bank; European Bank for Reconstruction and Development; European Investment Bank; Inter-American Development Bank; the World Bank Group and now the African Development Bank.
The GIF team will visit the Bank in Côte d’Ivoire from 20th to 22nd June 2018, for a kickoff meeting. The objectives of this meeting is to present GIF’s instruments overview, eligibility criteria, application, approval and implementation process as well as co-financing opportunities.
One important area for collaborating with GIF is to provide the African Continent with more leveraging opportunities to scale-up capacity for project preparation and help increase the number of well-structured and bankable projects. As GIF Technical Partner, the African Development Bank will be able to mobilize resources that will enable it to deliver on its High 5 priorities, especially in Energy, Agriculture (Water) and regional integration (Transport and ICT).
The Bank’s GIF Technical Partnership will be implemented by the Infrastructure and Partnerships Division under the Private Sector, Infrastructure and Industrialization Complex. The Division already hosts international Infrastructure Partnerships initiatives such as NEPAD-Infrastructure Project Preparation Facility (NEPAD-IPPF), the Infrastructure Consortium for Africa (ICA) and the Project Preparation Facility Network (PPFN). It also ensures overall coordination and synergies with key Africa infrastructure stakeholders in both public and private sectors.