The maiden forum will
hold in Johannesburg from November 7-9 this year.

The forum was launched
based on the realization that by 2050, Africa’s growing population will tip the
scales at a whopping 2 billion, with a youth of 840 million. In the process,
the continent will overtake the populations of China and India combined.

Financing Africa’s
development needs will require an estimated US $600-700 billion per annum.
According to the African Development Bank’s African Economic Outlook 2018 ,
about US $130-170 billion a year in infrastructure will be needed.

The Africa Investment
Forum will be a platform to mobilize private equity funds, sovereign wealth
funds and the private sector to facilitate infrastructure projects with the
capacity to transform the continent.

The Premier of Gauteng
Province, Africa’s seventh largest economy, David Makhura, endorsed the Forum
as a game changer for financing Africa’s infrastructure development at the
launch of the African Investment Forum in Johannesburg.

A done deal: AfDB and Gauteng officials at the signing ceremony

“It’s an honour to
receive a vote of confidence from one of the most influential, respected and
credible institutions of our continent. I want to assure the African
Development Bank, and members of the African and global investor community that
we are ready to host a highly successful Africa Investment Forum in November.
We have an impeccable track record of hosting continental and global events of
the magnitude and significance represented by the Africa Investment Forum,”
Makhura said at the formal launch of the Forum.

The Bank and the
Government of Gauteng Province on Tuesday signed a memorandum of agreement to
host the inaugural edition of the Africa Investment Forum.

Makhura referred to
the Africa Investment Forum as more than a Davos of Africa, stating that “we as
the Gauteng Provincial Government are very pleased to have won the bid to host
this biggest and unparalleled investment platform on the African continent.
It’s a great platform that will translate Africa’s professed potentials into
real opportunities and progress.”

He added, “The
November Inaugural Africa Investment Forum fits very well with the investment
drive of President Ramaphosa and will be one of the most important platforms
for our government and local businesses to pitch for greater levels of investment.
Gauteng-based investment companies have already invested more than $30 billion
in different regions of Africa. We have a 15-year infrastructure masterplan
with a portfolio of bankable projects that require more than $150 billion over
10 years.”

While Africa is the
next investment frontier, there is an urgent need to bridge the gap between
available capital and bankable projects, said African Development Bank
President Akinwumi Adesina, noting the Africa Investment Forum will help make
Africa a place where its young people want to live and thrive in.

“The overall
Investment gap for Africa to achieve overall economic development is actually
much higher and stands at $200 billion to $1.2 trillion a year. Impediments to
bankable projects must be resolved to create win-wins for governments,
development finance institutions and other relevant stakeholders. Africa must
invest in its own development if it wants others to do so,” he said.

“This is the essential
reason for the new approach of the Africa Investment Forum, a
multi-stakeholder, multi-disciplinary platform that will incentivize
collaboration for the economic and social development of Africa. This will
primarily be about transactions and investment deals for Africa’s economic
development and not a talk shop.”

Adesina noted that
financing Africa’s development is and has always been a collective and
cooperative task, requiring broad-based partnerships with the private sector.

“We know that the
money is there. By 2020, there will be close to $111 trillion assets under
management globally that are invested around the world often at very low
interest rates. Within Africa, the assets under management of domestic
institutional investors will rise to $1.8 trillion by 2020, tripling from $634
billion in 2014. Most of this money isn’t invested in Africa. But Africa should
invest in its own development if it wants others to do so.”

Key industry leaders
have endorsed the Forum as a unique opportunity for the private sector to
invest in transformative projects across key sectors of strategic interest in
Africa.

Investor Relations and
Communication Executive at Harith General Partners, Pule Molebeledi, described
the investment guarantee component of the AIF as a game changer.

“This will be a major
catalyst for projects that are currently stuck in the pipeline,” he said.

The African
Development Bank is committed to working with other multi-lateral development
partners, private equity funds, sovereign wealth funds, insurance funds,
private sector and stakeholders to ensure that the Africa Investment Forum
becomes Africa’s key springboard for African investment and for meeting the
continent’s massive infrastructure and development needs. This is the first
time ever that several multilateral development banks will come together on a
single platform designed to bring a major pipeline of bankable projects to
completion.