Nigeria, again misses out in EIB’s €80b economic plans

Nigeria may have been left out of the latest expansion plan of the European Investment Bank (EIB), which have about €80 billion yearly investment pledge in the kitty for Africa.
 
Though, of the total planned yearly investment, only a paltry €2.5 billion has been redeemed through its representative offices in just six countries- South Africa, Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Tunisia and Senegal.
 
Meanwhile, Bloomberg report noted that the bank’s top official on Wednesday in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, announced that EIB will provide €40 million ($43.8 million) to expand the country’s water and sanitation networks.
 
The bank, had last week, opened its representative office in Ethiopia, to make the seventh presence in the continent, while pursuing more expansion in the region.

The new office, according to reports will strengthen EIB’s engagement to both support long-term infrastructure and private sector investment in Ethiopia and to manage relations with the African Union Commission and other international organisations based in the Ethiopian capital.
 
The EIB, in the new plan, would be expanding to four more African cities in an effort to strengthen its foothold on a continent looking for financing to build infrastructure and sustain development quests.
 
The countries include Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde, due later this year, followed by Abidjan in Ivory Coast, Zambia’s Lusaka, and Maputo in Mozambique in 2016, according to EIB’s Vice President, Pim van Ballekom.
 
“Africa is growing fast. There are many opportunities of investment in energy, water and sanitation and agriculture. We could do €10 billion a year, but we are dependent on the will of the shareholders. The investment opportunities in Africa are huge,” Van Ballekom said.
 
The African Development Bank (AfDB) said that economic growth across the continent was set to accelerate to five percent in 2016 from an estimated 4.5 percent this year, given expected foreign direct investment that will rise to $73.5 billion. 
 
According to AfDB, the inflows may help narrow a funding gap for infrastructure development on the continent that the World Bank estimates at $93 billion a year.

EIB is a publicly owned international financial institution, with its shareholders comprising the European Union member states, which set the bank’s broad policy goals and the world’s largest international public lending institution.

It has made the development of private and financial sectors a priority across all non-EU mandates, especially with its Africa, Carribean and Pacific (ACP) initiative.

The ACP Investment Facility- a revolving fund dedicated to private sector development in the regions, since it was launched in 2003, has up till to 2014, channelled about €4.5 billion in over 230 projects and 90 per cent being in the private sector, stimulating entrepreneurship by increasing access to finance for small businesses.