Finance institution the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) has rebranded to mark its 15-year anniversary, with a new logo and a strapline that reads: ‘Instrumental Infrastructure. Instrumental Africa’.

In a statement on March 28, the AFC said the new logo embodied the organisation’s mission to advance Africa’s global position. 

“Core to our approach, is turning infrastructure into an instrument for change. We . . . deliver . . . solutions to close Africa’s infrastructure gap and unleash our continent’s prosperity,” the AFC stated.

The AFC aims to highlight Africa as a major supplier of beneficiated resources, goods and services, and as the primary source of metals and minerals for the new energy transition – thereby creating jobs for the world’s largest and youngest workforce.  

The AFC rebranding was designed to reiterate its capabilities across industries such as heavy equipment, energy, natural resources, transport, logistics and telecommunications.

“Our new identity reinforces our role in working to advance Africa’s instrumental role as a global growth engine. Through impact investing in infrastructure, we are committed to helping the continent position itself for greater success in a world of growing crisis and complexity,” said AFC president and CEO Samaila Zubairu. 

Considering Africa’s infrastructure investment needs are estimated at between $130-billion and $170-billion a year, the AFC’s new branding was designed to be emblematic of its strategic developmental role in the sectors most critical as growth engines for sustainable economic development.

The AFC said its approach leverages on Africa’s many advantages, including the African Continental Free Trade Area, which has created the world’s largest single market of almost 1.4-billion people.

Africa has the world’s biggest reserves of critical minerals, such as cobalt, which are required for the global green energy transition. The continent also boasts a workforce that is projected to exceed that of either China or India by 2034 and a population that is forecast to reach 2.5-billion by 2050.

Moreover, returns on African infrastructure investments often exceed that of other emerging markets, the AFC said.

“Our new brand endorses and anticipates the growing role Africa will play as it takes its rightful place on the world stage,” Zubairu concluded.