Egypt has become the 32nd member state of Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), the region's leading infrastructure solutions provider, opening up a potential $1billion of investments. "With the increasing importance of public-private partnerships in advancing the African continent and Egypt in particular, we are pleased to accede to membership of a renowned and trusted pan-African institution like Africa Finance Corporation," Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said. Egypt's membership expands AFC's footprint in North Africa, as Morocco joined earlier in June 2021. As a member, Egypt is expected to enjoy benefits, including increased investment allocation, preferred access to AFC's structuring and lending solutions, lowered debt costs for projects, and access to advisory and project development services. "We are already in discussions with AFC on pipeline projects, some of which includes supporting COVID-19 vaccine manufacture, working closely with the Ministry of Transportation to fund the high-speed train and the Cairo Monorail projects, as well as a collaboration with The Sovereign Fund of Egypt (TSFE) to fund renewable projects, and we look forward to executing these projects in line with the country's Vision 2030." Madbouly added. AFC has already invested more than $100 million in infrastructure projects in Egypt, including the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation and Carbon Holdings, a petrochemicals conglomerate. It has identified a further $600 million worth of projects across the renewables, natural gas, as well as the transport and logistics sectors and expects to invest more than $1billion in total, according to AFC's statement. In July, Samaila Zubairu, AFC's president and CEO, led a delegation of senior executives for meetings in Cairo with senior government officials, including Prime Minister Madbouly and Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait, who signed the instrument of adherence to AFC membership. "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 said. "I look forward to working with our partners to strengthen manufacturing on the continent, in particular, the production of COVID-19 vaccines." Established in 2007, AFC was designed to catalyse private sector-led infrastructure, investment across Africa. It is the second highest investment grade rated multilateral financial institution in the continent. AFC's approach combines specialist industry expertise with a focus on financial and technical advisory, project structuring, project development, and risk capital to identify Africa's infrastructure development needs and drive sustainable economic growth. The corporation invests in high-quality infrastructure assets that provide essential services in the core infrastructure sectors of power, natural resources, heavy industry, transport, and telecommunications. AFC has invested over $8.7 billion in projects in 35 countries across Africa since inception.
