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<p>The African Continental Free Trade Agreement accompanied with the right measures will improve trade in the region and remove fears around the agreement. This is according to Moono Mupotola, Director for Regional Integration at the African Development Bank. She discussed this and more with CNBC Africa’s Kenneth Igbomor.</p>


Free trade deal to help boost regional trade in Africa – AfDB’s Moono Mupotola

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<p>While applauding the economic growth across Africa in recent years, the Senior Vice President of the African Development Bank Charles Bohamah says the 4 per cent growth forecast for 2019 is not enough to make most African countries move from low income to higher income countries. He discussed this and more with CNBC Africa’s Kenneth Igbomor.</p>


AfDB’s Charles Bohamah talks on the state of Africa’s economies

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<p>The African Development Bank in collaboration with Nigeria&#8217;s Presidential Committee on the Northeast Initiative has launched the bank-financed Inclusive Basic Delivery and Livelihood Empowerment Program for Northeast Nigeria. CNBC Africa&#8217;s Wole Famurewa caught up with Ebrima Faal, Senior Director of the Nigeria Country Department of the African Development to discuss this initiative.</p>


AfDB supports recovery efforts in northeast Nigeria

<p>By African Development Bank and the Africa Union Commission</p>
<p>Benin made the most progress in opening up its borders to African travellers, moving from 27th place in the 2017 edition to 1st place in the 2018 report. These findings were made in the 3rd edition of the <a href="https://bit.ly/2KDifYQ">Africa Visa Openness Index Report 2018</a> published by the African Development Bank and the Africa Union Commission.</p>
<p>Zimbabwe also broke into the top 20 with the introduction of a visa-on-arrival policy for SADC members. Overall, when compared to 2017, Africans do not need a visa to travel to 25% of other African countries (up from 22%); can get visas on arrival in 24% of other African countries (same as last year); and need visas to travel to 51% of other African countries (down from 54%), see table below.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-323511" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Visa1.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="587" /><br />
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-323512 aligncenter" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Visa2.jpg" alt="" width="589" height="394" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">“Regional integration and trade based upon the free movement of persons, goods, services and capital is at the core of the business of the African Development Bank”<br />
Akinwumi A. Adesina, President, African Development Bank Group</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">However, the fact that Africans still require visas to travel to just over half of other African countries shows that more progress is needed to realise free movement of people continent-wide. As infrastructure expands across Africa, and tangible trade and investment opportunities are put on the table, Africans will need to travel with greater ease. Solutions such as the African passport, visa-free regional blocs, multi-year visas, or visa-on-arrival schemes should continue to be promoted.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">“Looking at the recent development this year, such as the announcement by Ethiopia, Africa’s diplomatic capital, on the establishment of a visa-on-arrival regime for all African passport holders, Africa is indeed on an upward trajectory towards seamless borders and the free movement of its people. Commendable work has also gone into the actual roll-out of the African passport to the citizenry.”<br />
Amb. Kwesi Quartey, Deputy Chairperson of the African Union Commission.</p>
<p>The Visa Openness Index assesses the progress African countries have realized in relaxing their visa regimes. Analysis go into the visa requirements set by each member state of the African Union for other member states seeking to enter their borders. The report aims to show at a glance which countries are facilitating travel for citizens of other African countries and how; whether they allow people to travel to their country without a visa; if travellers can get a visa on arrival in the country; or if visitors need to get a visa before travel.</p>


These are Africa’s most open countries when it comes to visas

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<p>The Tunisian Minister of Development Zied Ladhari spoke to CNBC Africa&#8217;s Chris Bishop about the kind of investments heading in and out of Northern Africa.</p>


Minister Zied Ladhari on investment opportunities in Tunisia

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<p>How can African countries create projects that are not only bankable but will be well received by investors? Opuiyo Oforiokuma, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of ARM-Harith joined CNBC Africa’s Kenneth Igbomor to discuss this on the side-lines of the just concluded African Investment Forum.</p>


How bankable are projects in Africa?

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<p>The Director of Energy Financial Solutions, at the African Development Bank, Wale Shonibare says the recently launched Africa Energy Portal will serve as a single point of entry to access information about the Energy Sector in Africa.</p>


Wale Shonibare speaks on the recently launched Africa Energy Portal

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<p>The Co-ordinator of Nigeria&#8217;s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan and Senior Special Assistant to Nigeria&#8217;s president Folarin Alayande says the boardroom sessions of the just concluded African Investment Forum achieved the aim of ensuring that the private sector sponsors are being put in touch with financiers, investors and public and private sector lenders. He discussed this and more with CNBC Africa’s Kenneth Igbomor on the side-lines of the African Investment Forum.</p>


Unlocking capital for projects in Nigeria

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<p>CNBC Africa&#8217;s Christy Cole caught up with Rakesh Wahi, the Vice Chairman and Co-founder of ABN on the side-lines of the Africa Investment Forum to discuss how to overcome the challenges of investing in Africa.</p>


How to overcome the challenges of investing in Africa – Rakesh Wahi

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<p>Chairperson of First Bank Nigeria, Ibukun Awosika, says facilitating a process of deconstructing the structural systems that makes it difficult for women to access the finance and knowledge they need to build skills in business is key to unlocking the wealth of Africa. She discussed this and more with CNBC Africa&#8217;s Christy Cole.</p>


First Bank’s Ibukun Awosika talks on ways to empower women in Africa

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<p>Segun Awolowo, Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Export Promotion Council says it is hard to do business and industrialise in Africa with interest rates around 24 per cent. He discussed this and more with CNBC Africa’s Christy Cole on the side-lines of the recently concluded African Investment Forum.</p>


NEPC’s Segun Awolowo on securing investments for Africa

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<p>On the side-lines of the Africa Investment Forum held in South Africa CNBC Africa is joined by Kola Karim, Chairman of Shoreline Group to talk on ways to unlock investments in Africa’s oil and gas industry.</p>


Kola Karim speaks on Africa’s oil and gas potential

<p>By: Amadou Hott, Vice-President of Power, Energy, Climate Change &amp; Green Growth at the African Development Bank</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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”.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Indisputably, this will put the continent steadily on the path to socio-economic growth, and sustainable development.</p>


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

<p><strong><em>By: Stella Kilonzo, Senior Director, Africa Investment Forum, African Development Bank</em></strong></p>
<p>It is estimated that around $170 billion is required per annum to finance the African Development Bank’s High Five Agenda. Moreover, Africa’s annual infrastructure gap is estimated anywhere between $68 &#8211; $130 billion a year.</p>
<p>When placed within the context of the continent’s growing population, youth bulge and economic potential, the need for increased private sector involvement is immediate. Decades of public spending, for instance on infrastructure has not been sufficient to adequately address the gap in the quantity or quality of much-needed infrastructure across the continent.</p>
<p>Africa does need a pool of investible funds that are accessible and long-tenured to finance its transformation. There is, therefore, an obvious need for Africa to significantly formalize its economies, create businesses that operate as corporate entities, and separately from their owners, as well as the right policy, regulatory and economic environments that are attractive to long term capital. Together with effective institutions for capital intermediation and appropriate investment market places, connecting providers and users of capital, such as the Africa Investment Forum, Africa can accelerate its economic and social transformation.</p>
<p>Across regions and in specific countries, there are several silver linings in the cloud. Much of it thanks to the active engagement of the private sector, and this is increasingly through financial markets.  This year, we witnessed the Initial Public Offer (IPO) and listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange of Vivo Energy&#8217;s, that raised over $740 million, which remains the largest listing of an Africa-focused business since 2005. Moreover, one of the most talked about IPOs was the MTN Group&#8217;s Ghana offering.</p>
<p>As investors focus greater attention on opportunities, what is coming into sharp focus is the premium that investors and markets are placing on good governance, market depth, the rule of law, policy and regulatory environments.</p>
<p>Aside from South Africa whose Johannesburg Stock Exchange market capitalization is around $1.06 trillion, most African financial markets remain small.</p>
<p>Despite challenges, Africa’s private sector and financial markets present strong possibilities and realistic potential for bridging the financing gap critical for the continent’s economic and social transformation, and the achievement of our priorities in agriculture, regional integration, energy, industrialization, and improvement of the standards of living across the continent as well as the sustainable development goals.</p>
<p>The fact is, the private sector and financial market contribution in helping to close the financing gap is neither a miracle nor a mirage. It is not a miracle as it is based on unleashing the full potential of the real economy and encouraging investment. It is also not a mirage as the public and private sector must continue to work together, and through the markets and other intermediary institutions, to raise capital especially the much needed long term funding.</p>
<p>The Africa Investment Forum, November 7 -9, 2018, will no doubt help raise the bar when it comes to bringing together all stakeholders,  public and private, and matching investment capital with the private sector, bankable projects and the continent’s ambitious goal of reducing its multi-billion dollar financing gap,  including for infrastructure.</p>
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This could be a game changer for financing Africa’s transformation

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<p>CNBC Africa spoke to delegates attending the inaugural Africa Investment Forum about their expectations from the forum.</p>


Delegates share their expectations from the inaugural Africa Investment Forum

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<p>Ibukun Adebayo, Co-Head of Emerging Markets &#038; Equity Primary Markets for the London Stock Exchange Group, talks about the need for Africa need to align policies in order to attract foreign direct investment.</p>


Ibukun Adebayo on role of the LSE in driving investment to Africa

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<p>European Investment Bank vice-President, Ambroise Fayolle speaks to CNBC Africa on the side-lines of the inaugural Africa Investment Forum about the investment opportunities in Africa.</p>


African Development Bank

Free trade deal to help boost regional trade in Africa – AfDB’s Moono Mupotola

AfDB’s Charles Bohamah talks on the state of Africa’s economies

AfDB supports recovery efforts in northeast Nigeria

These are Africa’s most open countries when it comes to visas

Minister Zied Ladhari on investment opportunities in Tunisia

How bankable are projects in Africa?

Wale Shonibare speaks on the recently launched Africa Energy Portal

Unlocking capital for projects in Nigeria

How to overcome the challenges of investing in Africa – Rakesh Wahi

First Bank’s Ibukun Awosika talks on ways to empower women in Africa

NEPC’s Segun Awolowo on securing investments for Africa

Kola Karim speaks on Africa’s oil and gas potential

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

This could be a game changer for financing Africa’s transformation

Delegates share their expectations from the inaugural Africa Investment Forum

Ibukun Adebayo on role of the LSE in driving investment to Africa

European Investment Bank’s Ambroise Fayolle talks about investment opportunities in Africa

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African Development Bank

Free trade deal to help boost regional trade in Africa – AfDB’s Moono Mupotola

AfDB’s Charles Bohamah talks on the state of Africa’s economies

AfDB supports recovery efforts in northeast Nigeria

These are Africa’s most open countries when it comes to visas

Minister Zied Ladhari on investment opportunities in Tunisia

How bankable are projects in Africa?

Wale Shonibare speaks on the recently launched Africa Energy Portal

Unlocking capital for projects in Nigeria

How to overcome the challenges of investing in Africa – Rakesh Wahi

First Bank’s Ibukun Awosika talks on ways to empower women in Africa

NEPC’s Segun Awolowo on securing investments for Africa

Kola Karim speaks on Africa’s oil and gas potential

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

This could be a game changer for financing Africa’s transformation

Delegates share their expectations from the inaugural Africa Investment Forum

Ibukun Adebayo on role of the LSE in driving investment to Africa

European Investment Bank’s Ambroise Fayolle talks about investment opportunities in Africa

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