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\nThis year\u2019s just concluded Africa Investment Forum Market Days\u2014the continent\u2019s premier investment platform\u2014has drawn $31 billion in investment interest from African and global investors.
\nCombined with $32.8 billion from the rescheduled 2021 Africa Investment Forum Market days\u2014which took place as virtual boardrooms in March this year\u2014the forum has mobilized a total of $63.8 billion of investment interest this year.
\nThe three-day event, held in the Ivorian commercial capital, Abidjan, attracted the participation of several African heads of state and government. The leaders chaired boardrooms and led transactions with potential investors. They included Vice President Ti\u00e9moko Meyliet Kon\u00e9 of C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire, who represented President Alassane Ouattara.
\nOthers were President Sahle-Work Zewde of Ethiopia; President Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana; President Emmerson Mnangagwa of Zimbabwe; Vice President Jewel Howard Taylor of Liberia; Vice President Philip Mpango of Tanzania; Prime Minister Jos\u00e9 Ulisses Correia e Silva n of Cabo Verde; and Prime Minister Patrick Achi of C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire.
\nThis year\u2019s Market Days event\u2014the third since 2018\u2014took place under the theme:\u00a0\u2018Building Economic Resilience through Sustainable Investments.\u2019<\/em>\u00a0It was held amid global economic challenges that have been compounded by the impacts of climate change, the Covid-19 pandemic, and the Russia-Ukraine war.
\nThe event showcased the Africa Investment Forum\u2019s founding partners\u2019 joint resolve to help unleash Africa\u2019s investment potential in such critical sectors as infrastructure, agriculture, energy, education, the creative industries, sports, and transactions that champion women entrepreneurs.
\nThe forum\u2019s founding partners are the African Development Bank, Africa50, Afrexim Bank, the Africa Finance Corporation, the Development Bank of Southern Africa, the European Investment Bank, the Islamic Development Bank, and the Trade and Development Bank.
\nThe partners said the results this year have exceeded expectations, given that the world is currently grappling with so many unprecedented economic challenges.
\nAfrican Development Bank President Dr. Akinwumi Adesina commended the forum\u2019s outcomes and the partners’ commitment.
\nHe said: \u201cDespite the challenges, we are not afraid, and neither have we despaired nor lost hope. We are excited and committed to a collective goal\u2026 accelerating the closure of deals to transform Africa and its investment landscape.\u201d
\nAdesina said the Africa Investment Forum\u2019s focus is to attract more foreign direct investment to Africa and ensure the private sector remains the driving force of that transformation.
\n\u201cThe private sector is Africa\u2019s growth accelerator. We must mitigate real and perceived risks and persuade the private sector that investing in Africa is safe,\u201d he emphasized.
\nIslamic Development Bank President Dr. Muhammed Sulaiman Al Jasser said in a message his organization was hopeful that \u201cour commitment and dedication to the AIF will translate into tangible and measurable outcomes for the benefit of our member countries across Africa.\u201d
\nAl Jasser restated the Islamic Development Bank Group\u2019s commitment to supporting transformative African projects, especially those promoting resilience, and financial, economic, and social sustainability.
\nTrade and Development Bank Group President and Chief Executive Admassu Tadesse underscored the value of the \u201cAIF spirit\u201d in doing more to advance and close investments.
\nTadesse stressed: \u201cNotwithstanding ongoing global crises, we have to keep our eye on the ball. We must continue to encourage and enable investment in agriculture and industry, as well as infrastructure. Growing our food and manufacturing more will enable us to trade more. It will lead to less overall greenhouse gas emissions linked to imports from far away, in the process also generating more employment and opportunities for our peoples.\u201d
\nEuropean Investment Bank President Werner Hoyer said while traveling to COP27: \u201cA diversity of ambitious and wide-ranging initiatives\u201d attracted high interest at this year\u2019s Market Days.
\n\u201cAt the European Investment Bank, we are excited to see how the creativity and vision of African innovators are making an impact, particularly in the area of technology which holds such great potential for Africa\u2019s future,\u201d Hoyer said.
\nMohan Vivekanandan, Group Executive Origination, and Coverage, Development Bank of Southern Africa, noted that a unique feature of this year\u2019s forum was that it focused on transactions.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s about the project sponsors, the project developers, and how we as development financiers help them get their vision implemented to improve the quality of life of Africans, and how we promote economic growth, job creation, and industrialization,\u201d Vivekanandan said.
\nAfrica Finance Corporation President and CEO Samaila Zubairu said: \u201cThe current global economic challenges indicate the critical need to build Africa\u2019s self-sufficiency by investing in resilient infrastructure. Such critical investment is needed to drive Africa\u2019s industrialization and economic prosperity.\u201d
\nAfrica50 CEO Alain Ebobisse said the Africa Investment Forum presented a timely platform to help scale up and speed up investments into Africa, especially as partners strive to build the continent\u2019s resilience to economic shocks and climate change.
\nEbobisse: \u201cAttracting new pools of capital into infrastructure will be critical. More specifically, Africa\u2019s institutional investors, such as pension funds and sovereign wealth funds must play a critical role and will be the game changers for Africa\u2019s infrastructure development.\u201d
\nAfreximbank President Benedict Oramah said: \u201cThis year\u2019s Africa Investment Forum reflects, in the number, attitudes, and diversity of its attendees, the interest and optimism of global investors towards the continent and its opportunities. We close, knowing that the AIF, Africa\u2019s largest transactional investment marketplace, continues to be a huge success. Moreover, the event serves as a measure of international confidence in Africa’s economic and political development, and the unmatched investment opportunities this is creating.\u201d
\nAfrica Investment Forum Senior Director Chinelo Anohu said: \u201cA lot of the successes recorded by the Africa Investment Forum are domiciled in the spirit of the partnership.\u00a0It\u2019s up to us to ensure the continent is what it ought to be.\u201d
\nSince its inception in 2018, the Africa Investment Forum platform has mobilized over $100\u00a0billion in investment interests.
\nAbout the African Development Bank Group:<\/strong>
\nThe African Development Bank Group (AfDB) is Africa\u2019s premier development finance institution. It comprises three distinct entities: the African Development Bank (AfDB), the African Development Fund (ADF), and the Nigeria Trust Fund (NTF). On the ground in 44 African countries with an external office in Japan, the AfDB contributes to the economic development and the social progress of its 54 regional member states. For more information: www.AfDB.org<\/a><\/p>\n<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This year\u2019s just concluded Africa Investment Forum Market Days\u2014the continent\u2019s premier investment platform\u2014has drawn $31 billion in investment interest from African and global investors. Combined with $32.8 billion from the rescheduled 2021 Africa Investment Forum Market days\u2014which took place as virtual boardrooms in March this year\u2014the forum has mobilized a total of $63.8 billion of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4600,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,154],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-popular-news","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenyaleo.co.ke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenyaleo.co.ke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenyaleo.co.ke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenyaleo.co.ke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenyaleo.co.ke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4599"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenyaleo.co.ke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4599\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4605,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenyaleo.co.ke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4599\/revisions\/4605"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenyaleo.co.ke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenyaleo.co.ke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenyaleo.co.ke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenyaleo.co.ke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}