Africa Finance Corporation announces Egypt as first North African shareholder
“We welcome Egypt as a highly valued member of our core shareholders, helping us to maximise the impact of investments in systemic solutions within Egypt and across the continent. We look forward to expanding our collaboration to elevate Egypt’s economy through delivering resilient infrastructure, in line with our mandate of catalysing economic growth, value accretion, and industrial development for all African countries,” AFC president and CEO Samaila Zubairu said.
Egypt’s Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait said that “this equity investment is a testament to our confidence in AFC’s role as a trusted partner in delivering transformational impact in Egypt and overall in Africa. We look forward to boosting our partnership with the corporation as we work together to develop the key infrastructure projects in the pipeline.”
In September 2021, AFC announced Egypt as its 32nd member state with a plan to invest over $1 billion in the country.
AFC has already invested over $100 million in infrastructure projects in Egypt, including the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation and Carbon Holdings, a petrochemicals conglomerate.
The corporation has already identified an immediate project pipeline worth over $1 billion in critical infrastructure across key sectors in Egypt, including renewable energy, natural gas, heavy industries, technology, telecoms, banking and finance. That is in addition to $265 million of existing investments by AFC in Egypt.
Egypt’s equity commitment and its imminent representation on the AFC Board of Directors enhances the corporation’s pan-African spread of shareholders and diversified board and management, which now includes governments, development finance institutions and institutional investors, according to the corporation.
In 2022, AFC onboarded Sierra Leone, Democratic Republic of Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, South Africa’s Public Investment Corporation, and the pension funds of Mauritius and Seychelles as shareholders. Other sovereign shareholders include Ghana, Gabon, Togo and Guinea.