Infra Africa & Middle East addresses financing infrastructure in developing countries.

We build a basic model that gives motivations for using a combination of public finance, private debt, and private equity. The model is then extended in a number of ways to examine factors that are important for developing countries.

We focus in particular on key institutional weaknesses that are often important for infrastructure investment. Overall, we show that such weaknesses can be key in determining financing choices, but that they do not all push in the same direction. Financing schemes must therefore be adapted to consider the institutional limitations that are most pertinent in any given context.

Because of limited public resources the private sector has a significant role to play in delivering the infrastructure which is necessary to support strong economic growth in Africa. This requires a greater focus on project development to generate more bankable projects and leveraging a larger pool of capital to fund them.

In 2012, in their Declaration on the Program for Infrastructure Development in Africa, African heads of state called for innovative solutions to accelerate infrastructure delivery. After broad consultations with African stakeholders, the African Development Bank established the new investment vehicle called Africa50.

Africa50 is designed as an infrastructure fund that focuses on high-impact national and regional projects mostly in the energy, transport, ICT and water sectors. With project development and equity financing divisions, Africa50 can provide support at every stage of the project cycle.

Despite increased investment in infrastructure in Africa there is still a large funding gap. Moreover, the project development phase for infrastructure projects is too long and very limited resources are allocated to infrastructure project development given the needs. Africa50 accelerates the provision of infrastructure by speeding up both project development and financing.

In Infra Africa & Middle East show, experts, bankers and investors will discuss together with governmental officials challenges and opportunities affecting financing mega infrastructure projects in African countries.