Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) logo.
Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) announced Egypt as its 32nd member state, AFC said on Thursday.
“With the increasing importance of public-private partnerships in advancing the African continent, and Egypt in particular, we are pleased to accede to the membership of a renowned and trusted pan-African institution like Africa Finance Corporation,” said Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly.
Madbouly added that the government is already in discussions with AFC on pipeline projects, some of which include supporting COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing, working closely with the Ministry of Transportation to fund the high speed train, the Cairo monorail projects, as well as establishing a collaboration with the Sovereign Fund of Egypt (SFE) to fund renewable projects. "We are looking forward to implementing these projects in line with the country’s Vision 2030," he added.
AFC has already invested over $100 million in infrastructure projects in Egypt, including the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation and Carbon Holdings, a petrochemicals conglomerate.
The corporation has also identified a further $600 million worth of projects across renewables, natural gas, as well as the transport and logistics sectors, expecting to invest over $1 billion in Egypt in total.
Egypt’s accession expands AFC’s footprint in North Africa, after Morocco had joined in June 2021.
As a member, Egypt will enjoy benefits including increased investment allocation, preferred access to AFC’s structuring and lending solutions, reduced debt costs for projects, and access to advisory and project development services.
In July, AFC President and CEO Samaila Zubairu and a delegation of senior AFC executives visited Egypt to meet with Prime Minister Madbouly and Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait, who inked the instrument of adherence to AFC membership. They also met with Minister of Planning and Economic Development Hala El-Said.
“We had several meetings with key government stakeholders in Cairo and their urgency in driving the next phase of development is consistent with AFC’s support for resilient and sustainable infrastructure that will benefit not only Egypt but the entire continent,” Zubairu stated.
“I look forward to working with our partners to strengthen manufacturing on the continent, in particular the production of Covid-19 vaccines,” he added.
AFC was established in 2007 with the aim of fostering private sector-led infrastructure investment across Africa.
It is the second highest investment multilateral financial institution in Africa, having an approach that combines specialist industry expertise with a focus on financial and technical advisory, project structuring, project development and risk capital to address Africa’s infrastructure development needs and drive sustainable economic growth.
AFC invests in high-quality infrastructure assets that provide essential services in the core infrastructure sectors of power, natural resources, heavy industry, transport, and telecommunications.
The corporation has invested over $8.7 billion in projects in 35 countries across Africa since its inception.
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