AFC supports Africa’s economic recovery with $2 billion facility

Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) is creating a $2 billion facility to promote recovery and resilience in Africa as a result of the worldwide COVID-19 epidemic and the Russia-Ukraine war. 

The African Development Bank (AFC) has also committed to finance up to half of the new African Economic Resilience Facility and mobilizing the rest through its network of foreign partners and investors. 

This was revealed on Thursday at the AFC Live Infrastructure Solutions Summit in Abuja.  

The facility would be distributed through AFC loans to selected commercial banks, regional development banks, and central banks in several African nations, providing them with much-needed hard currency liquidity to support trade and other economic operations.  

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The institutions are to make use of AFC’s established worldwide fundraising network to get funds at competitive rates. 

“The COVID-19 pandemic set Africa’s economic growth trajectory back and widened the trade financing gap, while the Russia-Ukraine conflict has added a new set of challenges negatively impacting growth prospects across the continent,” said Banji Fehintola, the organization’s head of treasury and financial institutions.

We are to play a key role in Africa’s recovery and resilience, not just via our efforts in bridging the continent’s infrastructure gap, but also through focus initiatives like this $2 billion economic resilience facility.”  

Applications for the African Economic Resilience Facility will open this month through AFC’s website (www.africafc.org), it said at the ongoing summit. 

The funding will also help AFC accelerate its development effect in Africa, assisting in the continent’s move to the new phase of growth focused on maximizing resource value capture and creating local jobs. 

AFC has massively improved mobilizing global funding for important infrastructure projects in Africa over the last 15 years. 

A $750 million 7-year Eurobond issued in 2021 at AFC’s lowest rate in history was among the Corporation’s recent bond issuance.  

AFC Capital Partners, the Corporation’s autonomous asset management arm, has ambitions to raise $2 billion to support climate adaptation infrastructure projects in Africa. 

The firm also claims to have spent $10 billion on projects in 35 African nations to date.