At the COP27 conference in Sharm El-Sheikh, the African Union (AU), the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Africa 50 Group, in partnership with various global partners, launched the Alliance for Green Infrastructure in Africa (AGIA), an initiative to help scale up and accelerate funding for green infrastructure projects in Africa.
Global cooperation partners working with the African Union, the African Development Bank and Africa 50 are the African Union Development Agency (AUDA), the European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the French Development Agency, the Rockefeller Foundation, the United States Agency for Trade and Development (USTADA), the Center for Global Adaptation (GCA), the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) and the African Forum of Sovereign Investors.
The Alliance’s mission is to raise substantial capital to accelerate Africa’s just and equitable transition to net zero emissions, with two strategic objectives. The first is to prepare a series of transformative projects with private financing. The second is to catalyze financing at the scale and speed of Africa’s green infrastructure..
The partners have identified their work in several pillars: preparation and development of projects. This pillar supports the shift from idea projects to thoughtful and bankable proposals..
It also implements a large number of bank-financed green infrastructure projects and project classifications..
This pillar establishes green eligibility criteria and guidelines for the classification of infrastructure projects. It also provides technical assistance for capacity building in the public and private sectors, co-financing, and de-risking. The pillar provides de-risking tools to facilitate investment and a clear framework for mobilizing equity and debt financing for green infrastructure from AGIA members and other sources..
AGIA will raise $500 million to provide early business development capital, which is the capital that will prepare a large number of bankable projects from initial feasibility to commercial and financial close. This is expected to mobilize investments of up to $10 billion in green infrastructure. This will be mobilized through a combination of co-investment, co-financing, risk mitigation and co-financing by Alliance members. This capital will also come from other financial institutions, global and African public and private institutional investors, project sponsors, sovereign operations of multilateral development banks and G-20 bilateral donors..
The Alliance focuses on energy, transportation, water and sanitation, health infrastructure, broadband infrastructure, and urban and rural infrastructure..
It will support large-scale programs, such as large-scale solar projects or green hydrogen projects, as well as smaller venture capital initiatives, such as clean-tech projects, energy storage, or electric mobility solutions..
“As African institutions, we need to focus on preparing projects at early stages, de-risking interventions and building a strong business environment to attract investors from around the world,” said Amani Abuzaid, African Union Commissioner for Energy and Infrastructure..
