Highlights Special of AfDB’s 54th Annual Meetings

By Victor Oladokun, Director of Communication and External Relations at the African Development Bank.



At the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt, the visual imagery of  almost empty stadiums is a powerful narrative. But not the kind that African sports, African football, or corporate sponsors deserve.



The empty seat syndrome in suggests
that football fans are voting with their feet, or better still with their
backsides. Fans are choosing not to watch live football events, and instead are
opting in increasing numbers&nbsp; for the
&#8216;intimacy&#8217; of their crystal clear digital flat TV screens, or not all.



Before Egypt&#8217;s stunning 0-1 loss to South
Africa in the round of 16, the host country was the only team able to attract
70,000 fans. Other than when Mo Salah and the Pharaohs have been on the field,
most stadia across Egypt have at best attracted an average of 5,000 to 7,000
fans.



Official broadcast camera crews have done a
creative job minimizing the visual gaps of empty seats. But wide camera angles
reveal the obvious &#8230; a lack of attendance and public enthusiasm, in spite of
the presence of some of the biggest names in world football on the field.



In European football leagues, where many of
the stars in Egypt ply their trade, fans pay mega bucks to see the likes of
John Mikel Obi, Ahmed Musa, Sadio Mane, Ryahd Mahrez, Nicolas Pépé, Wilfred,
Zaha, and Kalidou Koulibaly.



Which is why the empty seats in Egypt are
both stunning. 



Admittedly, Egypt bailed CAF out and should
receive well-deserved credit for coming to the rescue and hosting the African
Cup of Nations, with barely 6 months notice, when the original hosts were
sanctioned due to shoddy preparations.



Nevertheless, the lack of attendance in
Egypt speaks volumes high ticket costs; the timing of matches bang in the
middle of work days; the difficulties faced by national team supporters in
obtaining entry visas to Egypt; and challenges with the Confederation of
African Football&#8217;s complicated online ticket purchasing system.&nbsp; 



It should not be so. This after all, is the
most important event in Africa&#8217;s sports calendar. At least, it used to be
before England&#8217;s Premier League, Spain&#8217;s La Liga, Italy&#8217;s Serie A, and
Germany&#8217;s Bundesliga captured our collective imaginations.



The end result is that where once 30,000 to
70,000 fans a week watched highly competitive domestic football leagues across
Africa, the empty seat syndrome has been&nbsp;
the norm for almost two decades. It is not unusual to have less than a
thousand fans in a stadium that seats 30,000.



The lack of fan attendance has obvious
economic and financial implications across the sports value chain for team
owners, sports federations and confederations, players, sponsors, advertising
and marketing agencies, merchandisers, vendors, and local communities who once
counted on fan attendance to boost fledgling economies.



What&#8217;s responsible for the increasing
slide in fan attendance?



1. Poor facilities



2. High ticket costs



3. A lack of reliable transportation
to and from venues. As well as sufficient and secure parking.



4. Increasingly crude behavior and violence
at event locations.



5. Technology. Mobile phones
and Apps that carry events live as well as a plethora of entertainment
alternatives. In other words, once big events are no longer the main gigs in
town.



So, what can be done to reverse the
trend? Here are 5 quick suggestions.



1. It can no longer be business as
usual. Africa must run sports as a professional business. This includes
the right infrastructure, training facilities, attractive pay scales for
professional athletes who now consider anything less than a European league
appearance, a professional failure. 



Regrettably, as with Africa&#8217;s overall
propensity to simply export raw materials instead of adding value to what we
produce, we are doing the same with football and many other sports. Africa has
a tremendous abundance of potential talent that for the most part (with the
exception of South Africa, Kenya and Ethiopia) we add little or no value to.
Instead, millions of genetically blessed athletes are simply waiting or begging
to be &#8216;found&#8217; on the cheap by European and American sports teams. Why? Simply
because we fail to see diamonds in the rough and because we are unable to add
value to the potential of what for now seems to be rough stones.



2. Modern and professionally
maintained facilities: In sizzling hot Africa, we must invest in
covered stadia. When I can sit in front of my big screen TV in my air
conditioned living room, why would I want to subject myself to temperatures
that I swear have gone up a number of notches in recent years?



3. Sport is a spectacle. This
includes everything including pre-event and half time entertainment to keep
fans with short attention spans upbeat and engaged.



4. Give back to the fans:
Essentially, engagement in the 21st century must change. Its time to give something
back to fans rather than fleecing them at every opportunity with sub-standard
services and products. It would seem to me that sports teams could offer
something as simple as raffle draws that reward fans with extra game tickets,
signed player jerseys, visits with select players, or products from local
sponsors. Professional marketing firms can come up with an endless list.



5. Make sports big and make it a
win-win proposition. 



Real Madrid F.C. and Barcelona F.C. for
example, are not owned by a few rich individuals. Instead, they are owned and
supported by thousands of shareholders known as &#8216;socios.&#8217; Across Africa,
it&#8217;s time to change the numbers game &#8211; in ownership, money, and attendance &#8211; by
giving fans a seat at the table.



These are just a few quick ideas. However,
the running of sports in general and football in particular as a business and a
brand proposition, will require honest analysis, political and financial will,
and a collective approach.



It must be if Africa is to unlock potential
and turn millions into billions.

Op-Ed: Sports as a business and a brand in Africa

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&#8211; Dr. Victor Oladokun, Director of Communication, African Development Bank



In 2018, the fictional country of Wakanda
in the blockbuster movie Black Panther, was ranked fourth as the most
mentioned ‘country’ in Africa during TV broadcasts, according to a recent study
by the University of Southern California. Coverage of Wakanda far exceeded
mentions about African business, travel, health; sports, or development. While
the finding is amusing, it is a reminder of the significant narrative challenge
an integrated Africa faces in showcasing opportunities and the many
transformational changes taking place on the continent. Ultimately, effective
and transparent communication will be key to regional integration, and the
capacity to attract investor and partner interest.



At the heart of every civilisation is a
human desire for game-changing solutions that transform nations and human
lives. Vibranium, Wakanda’s equally fictional precious metal, was the
key to making it the most technologically advanced nation on the planet. But in
reality, critical to a regionally integrated ecosystem will be how Africa
continues to innovatively use, manage and add value to its tremendous
resources. 



Tectonic global shifts are already
changing every aspect of our economies and enterprises. Also affected, are
policies, education, research, ICT, finance and banking, trade, migration and
the mobility of human capital, goods and services. The African Continental Free
Trade Area agreement, which came into force on May 30, 2019, holds the
tantalizing prospect for the creation of a single market for goods, services
and the movement of persons, with a total GDP of $2.5 trillion, and a combined
population of one billion people. 



Astounding and rapid technological
developments are already underway in artificial intelligence, robotics,
nanotech, quantum computing and Big Data. The African Development Bank and
partners such as The Rockefeller Foundation, Microsoft, and Facebook, have
launched a Coding for Employment Program to create over 9 million jobs and
reach 32 million youth and women across the region. With an eye on the future,
the African Development Bank is also working to bring advanced drone
technologies to African agriculture with a pilot project already underway in
Tunisia, and plans for potential regional rollouts.



The fact is that it’s no longer ‘business
as usual.’ The ground underneath our feet is shifting at amazing speed. So, one
thing is certain. The near future will be radically different from anything we
might contemplate today. Which is why the African Development Bank and its
partners, will continue to work toward integrating the best ideas,
technologies, policies, systems and infrastructure.



Creating the regionally integrated Africa
of our dreams, will require political will, policy changes, and private and
public sector partnerships. It will also require positive human agency and
energy that is characterized by vision, great hope, trust, and a genuine love
of humanity. Only then, can we expect to bring the greatest benefit to the
greatest number of Africans ever. 



In 2019, as the African Development Bank
commemorates its 55th anniversary, we are poised to play an even more strategic
role, in conjunction with the African Union Commission and other partners, to
help make Africa’s economic integration a concrete reality. 



Together, we will irreversibly impact and
transform the lives of millions of Africans.

Op-Ed: Shaping the Africa of  the future

Press Release



Two innovative products &#8211; Digital Investment Platform, Tracker, announced 



Abidjan, Cote
d’Ivoire, 25 March 2019 &#8211; The African Development Bank, heads of 34 leading financial institutions covering Africa and other partners of the Africa Investment Forum reaffirmed
their commitment to “scale up, speed up, and synergize” efforts to deliver
transformative projects across the continent.



The meeting was also
attended by lead partners of the Africa Investment Forum: African Export-Import Bank, Africa50, Trade Development Bank,
Development Bank of South Africa, Africa Finance Corporation, European
Investment Bank, and Islamic Development Bank.



Chief Executive Officer,
Development Bank of Southern Africa, Patrick Dlamini, said: “The time has come
for us to demonstrate leadership to the rest of the world that a lot is
possible in Africa. The Africa Investment Forum provides the right platform to
achieve this. To see that the inaugural Forum last year was able to raise the
kind deals it did is mind-blowing. ”



Ahead of the November
2019 event, the Bank announced two innovative products &#8211; an open digital
marketplace known as ‘<a href="https://platform.africainvestmentforum.com/">The Platform</a>,’ to connect funders to projects and investment opportunities across
Africa, and an Investment Tracker to
ensure that investment commitments made on the Africa Investment Forum platform
are closely monitored. 



<a href="https://platform.africainvestmentforum.com">The Platform</a> is developed in
partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank’s <a href="https://connectamericas.com/">ConnectAmericas</a> &#8211; a global digital community with 200,000 registered business users, consolidating
its lead role in encouraging private sector investment in Africa.



&nbsp;“We need to make the Africa
Investment Forum the accelerator of projects. Last year’s event was great and
we want to build on that momentum,” Africa 50 Chief Executive Officer Alain Ebobissé said, stressing the need to
collectively commit additional financial resources for project preparation, and
legal support for African governments to better negotiate public private
partnerships. 



Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African
Development Bank, said the maiden edition of the Forum held in November 2018
exceeded expectations. “The 2018 Africa Investment
Forum ended with 49 deals that secured investor interest worth US$ 38.7 billion—in
just three days.” Adesina thanked the
core partners for their strong support in making the inaugural forum a success,
and that “working together as one remains the core principle of our
partnership.”



Partners unanimously
affirmed their commitment to the Forum and to driving investments in Africa.



Mamadou Barro, Head Africa, Islamic
Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector – Member of the Islamic
Development Bank (IsDB) Group, said: “We
must find a way to collectively attract the kind of funds the continent needs
to close its infrastructure gap.”



Participants welcomed the
innovative Platform, which offers investors, project sponsors and transaction
facilitators a live database of private/public private partnership (PPP)
projects and investment opportunities in Africa. It connects providers of
capital with opportunities for deals, improves the quality of project
information and reduces intermediation costs.&nbsp;
Features also include deal flow analytics and investment support
services, and access to training in the ConnectAmericas Academy.



Director
Project and Export Development Finance, African Export Import Bank, Kofi Adomakoh, called attention to the
importance of the co-guarantee component of the Forum, “We must pull our
strengths together to identify projects and synergies under the Africa
Investment Forum. The African Investment Forum that happened last year was long
overdue, but was important to put us back on track,” he noted. 



The 2018 Africa
Investment Forum attracted 1,943 participants representing 87 countries, and
brought together 400 investors from 52 countries;



According to Jane Feehan, Head of
Regional Representation for West Africa, European Investment Bank: “We are delighted
to underline and repeat our commitment to the Africa Investment Forum. The
success of the first edition has given it a huge convening power. We are also
excited about the focus on transactions.”

#AfricaInvestmentForum: Partners reaffirm commitment to close Africa’s infrastructure gap

By: Amadou Hott, Vice-President of Power, Energy, Climate Change &amp; Green Growth at the African Development Bank
Accessible, reliable and affordable energy is the cornerstone of transformational socio-economic development. For Africa, delivering sustainable development is dependent on meeting the continent’s energy needs in order to lift populations out of poverty, catalyze industrialization, and stimulate economic growth.
Despite the continent’s abundant energy resources, energy poverty is still rife in the continent with close to 600 million people lacking access to electricity. This sets nations back on meeting energy access goals, retards industry progress, and diminishes the continent’s economic growth by 2 to 4 percent every year.
On a positive note, energy access has improved in recent years with the number of people without access in sub-Saharan Africa falling for the first time in absolute terms, and with countries such as Ethiopia, Kenya and Rwanda leading the pace. Africa is at the forefront of distributed energy systems that can increase energy access in rural areas faster, more cheaply, and more widely than conventional grid extension, driven by innovative business models and rapidly decreasing technology costs. At the same time, renewables are on the rise across the continent with significant renewable generation capacities added in countries such as Egypt, Morocco and South Africa.
Renewable energy investments are also on the rise across the continent from Senegal, to Kenya, and Zambia. While this progress is encouraging, the pace of energy access falls far short of meeting the universal energy access target by 2030.
Closing the gap on Africa’s energy challenges presents major opportunities for investors keen on engaging with the continent, especially on helping Africa meet the shortfall in the estimated $90 billion required to achieve universal energy access by 2030.
Clearly, these financing needs are of such magnitude that no single institution is capable of meeting them in isolation. This is why development finance institutions need a pragmatic shift in how they do business and leverage scarce public resources in order to mobilize private sector financing at scale, “from billions to trillions”.
The African Development Bank is leading by example. For instance, the Bank launched the Facility for Energy Inclusion to close funding gaps in the small-scale energy infrastructure sector, and catalyze last-mile energy access. Through a mix of commercial and concessional instruments, the facility provides low cost of capital, and mitigates key credit and currency risks. Additionally, the recently approved the Room2Run transaction allows the Bank to effectively transfer the credit risks of selected loan portfolios to investors, which lowers the total risk consumption of the Bank.
This initiative will enable the Bank to recycle capital efficiently in order to boost lending capacity and enhance private sector investments. The transaction has already attracted major support from partners like the European Commission who will provide a $100 million guarantee to be channeled into renewable energy projects in Africa. Ultimately, this will free up around $700 million, which can be re-allocated to new projects.
Multiple barriers hinder investments and private sector participation which could potentially fast-track energy access. These include lack of an enabling policy environment for investors, and other systemic bottlenecks that slow down transactions and escalate project costs. Transforming the energy landscape calls for a multi-faceted approach to unlock private sector capital by resolving these barriers in order to create the ideal conditions for investments in the continent.
The African Development Bank in close collaboration with other development partners is perched on the apex of creating a vibrant marketplace that will deliver the energy transformation necessary to move Africa forward. The Bank is dedicated to eliminating and minimizing barriers for investors, primarily through financial instruments to de-risk transactions, disseminating knowledge and market data, and facilitating peer-to peer learning and networking. Private sector engagement is on the rise, buoyed by various partnerships such as the New Deal on Energy for Africa and the US-led Power Africa Initiative.
To sustain this momentum, the bank convened the inaugural Africa Energy Market Place (AEMP) in Abidjan in July 2018. The AEMP is a platform for public private dialogue, and is set up to address barriers to mobilizing and scaling-up private investment into the energy sector. Effectively, AEMP reviews and prioritizes transformative energy transactions, and accelerates reforms in order to attract private investments and create a pipeline of bankable projects. Five countries participated in the inaugural edition: Côte d&#8217;Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Zambia.
The conversations that began at the AEMP are set to continue in November’s Africa Investment Forum (AIF) in South Africa. The forum convenes project sponsors, borrowers, lenders and investors with a shared interest in closing Africa’s infrastructure gap which is estimated to be anywhere between $130–$170 billion per year.
By convening,and facilitating mutually beneficial dialogue amongst stakeholders who can dramatically impact Africa’s energy landscape, the Bank is creating the requisite foundation for accelerated private sector investments in Africa’s energy sector to achieve universal energy access.
Indisputably, this will put the continent steadily on the path to socio-economic growth, and sustainable development.

OpEd: Why financing Africa’s energy infrastructure is a major opportunity for investors

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The Development Bank of Southern Africa, a state-owned financial institution, is backing projects to better the country&#8217;s infrastructure, one brick at a time. Mohan Vivekanandan, Group Executive of Client Coverage, at the Development Bank of Southern Africa joins CNBC Africa to discuss investment opportunities in Africa.

DBSA’s role in boosting infrastructure investment in Africa

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Africa’s investment environment and infrastructure investments position the continent at the top of the Agricultural Value Chain. CNBC Africa is joined by Ronnie Ntuli, Founder and Chairman of Thelo Group, to zoom into Africa Investment Forum set up to assist make it easier to get investments to Africa.

Unlocking Africa’s agricultural potential

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This November, at the first ever Africa Investment Forum, the African Development Bank plans to unveil about 120 billion dollars’ worth of bankable projects on the continent; Toyin Sanni, Group CEO of Emerging Africa Capital joins CNBC Africa to discuss what to expect at this forum.

AfDB plans to unveil billion dollars’ worth of bankable projects

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For global and Africa-based companies looking to access new growth markets, Africa offers exciting opportunities to build large, profitable businesses. Its population is young, fast-growing, and increasingly urbanized—while rapid technology adoption makes the continent a fertile arena for innovation. But Africa’s business environment remains poorly understood and known to many executives in the West only by its reputation for complexity, conflict, and corruption. Joining CNBC Africa to discuss this further and how the upcoming Africa Investment Forum will aim to change this is Acha Leke, Senior Partner at McKinsey &#038; Company.

Africa Investment Forum aims to attract billions into the continent

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Joining CNBC Africa to discuss the challenges, expectations and the best route to improving African investment is Hubert Danso, CEO and Vice Chairman at Africa Investor.

What’s holding back African investment growth?

Press Release
African Development Bank seeks partnerships to lift 1 billion people out of hunger globally 
“We must not get carried away: we are not winning the war against global hunger” 
INDIANAPOLIS, United States of America, September 26, 2018/ &#8212; The African Development Bank (www.AfDB.org) called on global partners to join hands to lift one billion people worldwide out of hunger and said it was leading the way by investing US$24 billion in African agriculture over the next 10 years in the largest such effort ever.
“We are not winning the war against global hunger,” Bank President Akinwumi Adesina told an agriculture conference at Purdue University in Indianapolis on Tuesday, 25 September.
“We must not get carried away,” he added, referring to statistics showing a decline in the global population living on less than two dollars per day. In reality, the number of hungry people in the world had increased from 777 million in 2015 to 815 million in 2016, he said citing the latest World Food Security and Nutrition data.
Adesina told the audience that included researchers, implementing organizations, business leaders, policymakers and donors that simple technical and scientific methods were already making a whole difference to farm yields and income in Africa. While such technologies to deliver Africa’s green revolution exist, they are mostly just sitting on the shelves, he said.
“The release of water efficient maize varieties now allows farmers to harvest good yields in the face of moderate drought,” he noted. “Today, rice varieties exist that can give yields of 8 tonnes per ha. Cassava varieties exist with yields of up to 80 tonnes per ha. Heat tolerant and disease resistant livestock and technologies for ramping up aquaculture exist.”
Bank experts put current comparative yields at 1.5-2 tonnes per ha for rice and 10-15 tonnes per ha for cassava.
What was needed urgently was deployment of supportive policies to ensure technologies are cascaded down to millions of farmers. “All Africa needs to do is to harness the available technologies with the right policies and rapidly raise agricultural productivity and incomes for farmers and assure lower food prices for consumers.”
The Bank has launched its Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT), a $1 billion initiative to extend the use of farm technologies. TAAT is currently engaging seed companies, public and private entities, and financial institutions in 27 countries to make technology available to a total of 40 million African farmers.
Combining targeted subsidies for farmers with a market-based system for rapidly expanding access to financing for farmers and agricultural value chains is the fastest way to get many people out of poverty to a sustained pathway for economic growth, Adesina added.
The conference on “ Scaling Up Agricultural Technologies for Transformation” (http://bit.ly/2NK3XL5) marked Adesina’s fond return to his alma mater.
“It was here, as a graduate student, that I began the journey of searching for ways to get technologies into the hands of millions of farmers,” he said. Adesina was to go on to make a huge impact on the transformation of agriculture in Africa, including implementing game-changing policies in his years as Nigeria’s Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development before taking up his post at the Bank in September 2015.
Adesina said the situation in Sub-Saharan Africa needed particularly urgent intervention due to the ravages of climate change. The International Food Policy Research Institute estimates that Africa will add 38 million to its number of hungry people by 2050 as a result of climate change. The Institute forecasts that Africa will experience major food shortages by 2020 and beyond, while malnutrition will be on the rise over the next 20 years.
The Bank’s ongoing initiatives had the objectives of growing income for farmers, stabilizing prices for staple crops, reducing losses and stimulating multiplier effects in local economies. With its Staple Crop Processing Zones and other initiatives, the Bank is demonstrating how this can be done.
“The African Development Bank put feeding Africa as one of its topmost priorities when it launched its Feed Africa strategy (http://bit.ly/2Q7A04c) in 2015 and is investing $ 24 billion in agriculture for Africa over 10 years – the largest ever such effort,” the Bank President said. Across Africa, the Feed Africa Strategy (http://bit.ly/2Q9GnUv) is supporting the development of policies, markets, infrastructure and institutions that will ensure that agricultural value chains are well developed and that technologies reach several millions of farmers.
Adesina called for global partnerships to establish Staple Crop Processing Zones across Africa.
“The SCPZs will provide several advantages for rural economies. They will create markets for farm produce. Raw materials will no longer be moved out of rural areas, but as finished value-added products. Post-harvest losses will be substantially reduced. Well integrated agricultural value chains will develop, with supportive logistics, especially warehousing and cold chains,” Adesina added.
The African Development Bank has already started investments to develop these SCPZs in a number of pioneering African countries, including Ethiopia, Togo, Democratic Republic of Congo and Mozambique. It expects the processing zones to be active in about 15 countries in the near-term.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of African Development Bank Group (AfDB).

AfDB seeks partnerships to lift 1 billion people out of hunger globally

By Karen Mwendera and Methil Renuka from Forbes Africa
From November 7-9, Africa Inc. will convene in South Africa’s Gauteng Province, the continent’s seventh largest economy, for the inaugural Africa Investment Forum (AIF).
An initiative of the African Development Bank (AfDB), it was announced in May in Johannesburg by AfDB President Akinwumi Adesina with Gauteng premier David Makhura.
“It will be the continent’s first-ever investment market place,” said Adesina, formerly Nigeria’s minister of agriculture.
“South Africa is open for business again, and as Gauteng, we are ready to host the forum on behalf of not only South Africa, but for Africa,” said Makhura, calling the forum “the Davos of Africa”.
A platform to close the investment gap, Adesina called it a game-changing initiative.
READ MORE: The Investment Hotspot
“It cannot be business as usual, it must be business unusual,” he said.
With Africa’s population set to be two billion by 2050, its development needs will require an estimated $600-$700 billion per annum. So accelerated development will be the forum’s focus.
“The forum will be 100% transactional. There will be no political speeches. The only thing allowed will be transactions, transactions and transactions,” said Adesina. In attendance in November will also be African heads of state who will be present as the CEOs of their countries.
In a sit-down interview with FORBES AFRICA, the AfDB president shared more about new investments, and the bread baskets and Silicon Valleys of Africa:
How will AIF take Afro-optimism and the African growth story further? 
African economies have been growing relatively well in a very difficult global environment. Despite the global economic downturn, in 2016, they grew at roughly 2.2%; in 2017, they grew at 3.6%. In 2018, they are projected to grow at 4.1%. And that’s still above the global average.
So Africa’s head is above the water. But it’s more than about keeping your head above the water that matters, it is about how fast you can swim. I think Africa needs to swim fast and needs a lot of oxygen to do that. And that means a lot of firepower in terms of capital to close the infrastructure gap. To be able to drive millions of people out of poverty, Africa should be growing at double digits.
To be able to do that we have to deal with the problem of lack of electricity, make sure there is a lot more investment to allow trade to happen. Africa could contribute a lot more be it is rail, ports, national highways or aviation. It has to change lives on the ground and quiet honestly when people ask if I am an Afro-optimist, I am a very proud African. Africa is a beautiful place and has tremendous potential so we shouldn’t always just talk about the potential because nobody eats potential. We have to unlock that potential. So that is what the Africa Investment Forum is all about. Be it oil, gas, minerals or agricultural commodities, Africa is awash with rich resources.
The question is how to turn them into real dividends with significant amounts of revenue that allows a better quality of life for the people. For that, you need to deal with the infrastructure deficit. We used to say it is about $15 billion. But that has changed. The AfDB recently released the African Economic Outlook report and the deficit is anywhere between $67 billion to $107 billion every year, so which means we must do a faster job pulling capital together because the rest of the world is not waiting.
How long will it take to close that gap? 
I think within the next decade. But it’s going to take a lot of work…
What about the youth dividend; what are the future industries? 
Africa is at the very top in fintech and mobile money… but as we look at new types of industries, we have to look at them in the context of the fourth industrial revolution… I get excited when I see the youth in Africa well-educated, they are all on social media, know how to use apps, which means they already have a leg up. So the key is how to re-tool them to operate in that kind of a new economy. The AfDB is doing that in three ways already. First is we signed up a joint program with Google and Microsoft to help develop young talented Africans in computer technology. We as a bank are already investing in technology parks in Cape Verde, Angola, Kenya, Senegal, Rwanda. These are technology parks where you can have the ICT industries emerge; almost like trying to create the Silicon Valleys of Africa.
When it comes to the new economy, you have to start early. We have a program trying to create 250 coding centers in Africa where you get people with computational knowledge to do coding services that can help in this new world we are moving towards. We are also investing in universities for science and technology across Africa to create this new scientific human capital…We need to give African youth the skills they need for the jobs of the future, not for the jobs of yesterday.
What then are the new wealth generators? 
If you look at where the money is going in Africa, it’s not actually going into oil, gas and natural resources. Most of the foreign direct investment (FDI) is going into the service industry, at least 64%, and also the financial services sector; maybe about 27% goes into the manufacturing sector. So these are the big sectors where you see a lot of FDI. But there are two sectors very important for me. 
One is ICT, because this is going to be the driver of the economy. It’s very important for countries to invest heavily in the ICT industry to give their countries the platforms they need in the knowledge economy.
The second is the food and agriculture industry. Africa has a lot of oil and gas, but nobody drinks oil, nobody smokes the gas. Food is the future. The size of the food and agriculture industry in Africa is going to be $1 trillion by 2030 in Africa. This is where the wealth is supposed to come from. Unfortunately, in Africa, we always walk past gold. Just imagine you are seeing gold, and you see it as dirt and don’t recognize it. That’s the power agriculture has… The food business is the biggest business. Agriculture is not a development sector, it’s not a social sector, it’s a wealth-creating sector. Agriculture is a business and Africa needs to fully unlock that potential. If you look at the amount of arable land left to feed nine billion people in the world by 2050, it is not in Europe, Latin America, Asia, or the US, it’s in Africa – 65% is right here. What Africa does with agriculture will determine the future of food for the world.
How will Africa’s billionaires and capitalists help achieve these goals? 
If you look at the high-networth-individuals in Africa, the majority of them make their money on this continent, and that’s already a strong signal. Aliko Dangote makes his money in Africa. 
So we are going to get them involved on the Africa Investment Forum because it is trying to send a message to the world that we have African businesses that are viable businesses making money and doing well on the continent; so putting capital to help them expand can help them become global multi-national companies…
And investing in African entrepreneurs? 
The issue for entrepreneurs is finding them, nurturing them and then putting the financial backing behind them to thrive. Africa has a lot of young people. Every day, I wake up I read about a young person doing so well. So the best investment that Africa can make is to put its capital at risk on behalf of its young people. Because when you see a young person walk into a financial institution, all you see is risk, risk, risk. We have to change that and try and see creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship. So that way we can put your money at risk to make them more creative, more innovative and unleash their entrepreneurship capacity. That is why at AfDB, we have a program helping to invest in the early-stage businesses of young people. Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates didn’t just get there, somebody had to believe in them.
We have a program set up with the European Union called Boost Africa to invest in young people. The other thing we are doing is helping unleash entrepreneurship in the food and agriculture industry. The bank has a program targeted at getting young graduates, medical doctors, engineers… who are all going to agriculture as a business. Last year, AfDB invested over $860 million in that program for about eight countries. Going forward, we expect to invest $1.5 billion dollars every year in that program for the next 10 years. 
I really think unless we change the mindset, the labor composition of the agricultural sector and create a new dynamic group of entrepreneurs in the food industry, we only will have old people left. Every university in Africa has to make entrepreneurship compulsory.

#AfricaInvestmentForum: A Marketplace Coming To Africa

Press Release
➢ WITH “ROOM2RUN,” AfDB LAUNCHES SECURITIZATION MARKET FOR MULTILATERAL 
DEVELOPMENT BANK SECTOR 
➢ TRANSACTION IS IN DIRECT RESPONSE TO G20 ACTION PLAN FOR MDB BALANCE SHEET OPTIMIZATION 
➢ AfDB COMMITS TO REINVEST FREED UP CAPITAL INTO NEW AFRICAN INFRASTRUCTURE 
LENDING, MAKING ROOM2RUN ONE OF THE LARGEST IMPACT INVESTMENTS EVER 
➢ TRANSACTION IS SUPPORTED BY NEW EUROPEAN UNION GUARANTEE TOOL (EUROPEAN FUND FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT)
OTTAWA, Canada, 18 September 2018 — The African Development Bank (AfDB), the European Commission, Mariner Investment Group, LLC (Mariner), Africa50, and Mizuho International plc today announce the pricing of Room2Run, a US $1 billion synthetic securitization corresponding to a portfolio of seasoned pan-African credit risk. Room2Run is the first-ever portfolio synthetic securitization between a Multi-Lateral Development Bank (MDB) and private sector investors, pioneering the use of securitization and credit risk transfer technology to a new and previously unexplored segment of the financial markets.
Structured as a synthetic securitization by Mizuho International, Room2Run transfers the mezzanine credit risk on a portfolio of approximately 50 loans from among the African Development Bank’s nonsovereign lending book, including power, transportation, financial sector, and manufacturing assets. The portfolio spans the African continent, with exposure to borrowers in North Africa, West Africa, Central Africa, East Africa, and Southern Africa. Mariner, the global alternative asset manager and a majority owned subsidiary of ORIX USA, is the lead investor in the transaction through its International Infrastructure Finance Company II fund (“IIFC II”). Africa50, the pan-African infrastructure investment platform, is investing alongside Mariner in the private sector tranche. Additional credit protection is being provided by the European Commission’s European Fund for Sustainable Development in the form of a senior mezzanine guarantee.
“Room2Run gives us fresh resources to invest in the projects Africans need most,” said Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank Group. “Africa has the most promise, the greatest natural resources, and the world’s youngest population. But we also have the world’s most persistent infrastructure deficits. The African Development Bank has the strategy to address these infrastructure finance gaps—and Room2Run gives us the capacity to make it happen.”
Structured as an impact investment, Room2Run is designed to enable the African Development Bank to increase lending in support of its mission to spur sustainable economic development and social progress. In connection with Room2Run, AfDB has committed to redeploy the freed-up capital into renewable energy projects in Sub-Saharan Africa, including projects in low income and fragile countries.
“On the Impact scale, Room2Run is off the charts,” said Dr. Andrew Hohns, Lead Portfolio Manager and head of the Mariner Infrastructure Investment Management team. “Room2Run answers the call of the G20 for private sector participants to step in and facilitate development finance, providing a template for attracting significant private sector capital into urgently needed projects in developing economies.”
Raza Hasnani, Head of Infrastructure Investment at Africa50 commented, “Room2Run provides an innovative and commercially viable solution to the African Development Bank’s risk management and lending objectives, while paving the way for commercial investors to support and benefit from the growth of infrastructure on the continent. Africa50 is very pleased to participate in this landmark transaction, which is in line with our mandate to drive increased investment in infrastructure in Africa, and to create pathways for long-term institutional capital to flow into this space.”
Room2Run enjoys the support and participation of the European Commission with an investment from the European Fund for Sustainable Development, in the form of a senior mezzanine guarantee. “Only a few days after announcing our renewed Alliance with Africa for sustainable investments and jobs, I am very happy to announce that we are, together with the African Development Bank, launching Room2Run,” commented Neven Mimica, the European Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development. “This initiative is a perfect example of what we are doing to support investments in African low income and fragile countries through the External Investment Plan. Through Room2Run we provide 
an additional protection to investments in the field of renewable energy. Through our Guarantee, investments under Room2Run will translate into extending supply to many people currently without electricity whilst creating much-needed new jobs.”
Room2Run also directly responds to calls by the G20 that MDBs use their existing resources to full capacity, as articulated in the 2015 G20 MDB Action Plan to Optimize Balance Sheets, as well as calls for greater MDB efforts to crowd-in private investment. The G20 has called on MDBs to share risk in their non-sovereign operations with private investors, including through structured finance, mezzanine financing, credit guarantee programs, and hedging structures.
The Government of Canada has been a global leader in advocating for MDBs to use their existing resources more efficiently and to mobilize private capital for global development. The goal of the G20 MDB Action Plan to Optimize Balance Sheets is to catalyze significant new development financing from the MDBs throughout the real economy in key development regions. “Attracting more private capital into global development efforts is critical to building economies that work for more and more people around the world,” said Bill Morneau, Canada’s Minister of Finance, “that’s why Canada and our G20 partners have been calling on multilateral development banks to use their existing resources as efficiently as possible, and to look for new ways to attract more private capital. We are pleased to see the African Development Bank come forward with a transaction that directly responds to both of these objectives. Room2Run is an innovative solution to a long-standing challenge.”
Juan Carlos Martorell, Co-Head of Structured Solutions at Mizuho International, adds, “Compared to other synthetic securitizations, a major achievement of Room2Run has been to ensure that ratings agencies, and in particular S&amp;P, reflect the merits of the risk transfer into their rating assessments for multilateral development banks. AfDB’s leadership through this transaction has now set the stage for broader adoption of the instrument throughout the MDB community.”

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