Transforming African Development : Partnerships and Risk Mitigation to Mobilize Private Investment on a New Scale
The role of the private sector is particularly significant inAfrica—the focus of this report. Africa’s population is expectedto increase to 1.7 billion in 2030. By 2050, the continent will be home to 2.4 billion people—a quarter of the world’s futu...
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
International Finance Corporation, Washington, DC
2016
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/960551477562907960/Path-to-African-development-mobilizing-private-investment-in-a-new-scale-by-the-reduction-of-the-partnership-and-risk http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25388 |
| Summary: | The role of the private sector is
particularly significant inAfrica—the focus of this report.
Africa’s population is expectedto increase to 1.7 billion in
2030. By 2050, the continent will be home to 2.4 billion
people—a quarter of the world’s future population. A growing
and rapidly urbanizing Africa requires substantially more
services and basic infrastructure, including power, ports,
roads, and railways. According to the WorldBank Group,
Africa’s unmet infrastructure investment needs are estimated
at more than 45 billion dollars annually. Only a robust
private sector can create the jobs and deliver higher
standards of living to an increasingly young African
population. In the poorest and most conflict-prone
countries, private markets barely exist, slowing
development.These markets must be built up and energized,
work that willrequire new types of financial instruments
that can attract private investment and mitigate risks for
investors.This report offers a template for how we can move
forward—by showing how investors, governments, local
enterprises, donors,and individuals are working together to
address investors’ riskconcerns and deliver more investment
with positive impact. It allows governments to
procureprivately funded solar power stations—quickly,
transparently,and at the lowest tariffs possible. Private
developers, fortheir part, benefit from an all-in-one
package of advice, risk management, finance and insurance.
So far, three countries are on board—Madagascar, Senegal and
Zambia—and dozens of top-tier companies are competing forthe
chance to build solar plants in markets they would
otherwisenot know how to navigate. The program’s first
auction, inZambia, resulted this year in the lowest-priced
solar power todate in Africa, just six cents per kilowatt
hour. In a countr ywhere only one fifth of the population
has access to electricity,consumers will now have a new
source of affordable, renewableenergy. IFC has a track
record of fostering and sustaining privateenterprise in the
most difficult environments.this report will encourage
governments, donor partners, and the private sector to
collaborate in new ways. |
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