The African Finance Corporation, a pan-African multilateral development financial institution, is accelerating efforts to mobilize the continent's own funds for investment and attract foreign investors, CEO Samaila Zubairu told a Western media outlet.
The AFC is seeking to leverage domestic capital from African institutional investors and domestic pension funds, which could unlock $15–20 billion long-term, the CEO emphasized.
"The only thing we want to change is to get domestic capital more available for investment within the continent. [...] We would accelerate our initiatives to mobilize domestic capital from African pension funds, African institutional investors, to invest domestically," the media quoted the AFC head as saying.
As an example of such a strategy, Zubairu cited the AFC's InfraCredit pilot project launched in Nigeria to channel pension fund investments into critical infrastructure, backed by Nigeria’s sovereign wealth fund, which guarantees local currency debt, and the initiative has mobilized $152 million from 21 pension funds.
The AFC plans to expand similar programs to Botswana, Angola, and Kenya this year to boost local funding, the report noted.
"This is the kind of program that we think needs to be replicated at scale. If we do programs like this, then you see a lot more billions available for investment," Zubairu emphasized.