This year’s Africa Investment Forum’s Market Days – a multi-stakeholder, multi-disciplinary platform that advances private and public-private partnership projects to bankability stage, raises capital and accelerates deals to financial closure – will take place in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, from December 1 to 3.
The yearly business gathering will showcase transformative investment opportunities across the African continent, many of which hold the potential to drive Africa’s recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.
The forum, a flagship initiative of the African Development Bank (AfDB), was launched in 2018 with seven other founding partners, including Africa 50, the Africa Finance Corporation, the African Export-Import Bank, the Development Bank of Southern Africa, the Trade and Development Bank, the European Investment Bank and the Islamic Development Bank.
Invited participants to the third edition of the forum, including investors, project sponsors and decision-makers, will be presented with a pipeline of deals that are ready for investment.
This year’s event will be held in a hybrid format, comprising boardroom sessions, where deals are agreed among those physically present, while other attendees will participate virtually.
Discussions will focus on many different sectors, notably agriculture and agroprocessing, energy and climate, health, information and communications technology, telecommunications, industrialisation and trade. These are all sectors prioritised under the Africa Investment Forum’s Unified Response to Covid-19 initiative, launched in 2020.
Boardroom sessions, where deals are finalised, will feature projects that are women-led; are in Africa’s creative industries; and which promote financial, economic and social sustainability.
“We look forward to welcoming investors to join us in Abidjan – and virtually around the world – to take the next step in Africa’s growth,” says AfDB president Dr Akinwumi Adesina.
He adds that, to achieve this growth and to bounce back to pre-pandemic levels, Africa will need significant financial support. “As an example, the whole of sub-Saharan Africa will need $425-billion in additional gross financing by 2030.”