African presidents to attend Dakar Financing Summit
PRESIDENTS of Guinea Bissau, Kenya, Rwanda, Senegal are to join Infrastructure development stakeholders at the Dakar Financing Summit.
Four presidents have confirmed their attendance at the Dakar Financing Summit this week. These are his excellency Umaro Sissoco Embalo of Guinea-Bissau, his excellency William Ruto of Kenya, his excellency Paul Kagame of Rwanda and host President, his excellency Macky Sall of Senegal.
The 2nd Dakar Financing Summit for Africa’s Infrastructure Development (DFS-2) will be held in Dakar, Senegal, at the Abdou Diouf International Conference Centre (Cicad) from February 1 to 3. Under the theme, “Maintaining the momentum towards world-class infrastructure in Africa,” the summit seeks to catalyse public, private and blended funding for identified priority infrastructure projects.
Specifically, it aims to generate and galvanise private sector interest in specific regional infrastructure projects and to mobilise substantial funds dedicated to the preparation of these projects.
Nardos Bekele-Thomas, the chief executive of the African Union Development Agency(Auda)-Nepad, said: “Our objective for this financing conference is to go beyond policy discussions and to engage investors, policymakers and project sponsors to come to some commitments with regard to the implementation of existing projects, for which we have completed the work of de-risking and early-stage preparation.”
Bekele-Thomas said Auda-Nepad’s work was key in this journey as it ensured that projects were well prepared, institutions and investors were all aligned, the perception of risk was reduced, and technical instruments and information were all equality shared.
“The time has come for Africa to accelerate the implementation of her infrastructure projects, at national and regional level, so as to allow the free movement of people, and goods and services, to create jobs and ready herself to engage and contribute to the ongoing changes in the world. Transport, energy, ICT and all components of infrastructures are key. Our continent will not allow herself to be left out,” Bekele-Thomas said.
Infrastructure development is a key driver of progress. A recent World Bank report showed that the poor state of infrastructure in many parts of Africa reduces national economic growth by two percentage points each year and causes business productivity to decline by up to 40%.
The 1st Dakar Financing Summit provided solutions to accelerate the implementation of the first Priority Action Plan of Africa’s blueprint for infrastructure development, the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (Pida).
The summit will be hosted by the Republic of Senegal, the African Union Commission and the African Union Development Agency-Nepad (Auda-Nepad) in partnership with the African Development Bank and the UN Economic Commission for Africa.
The continent’s infrastructure development is highly dependent on regional cohesion, it is in this regard that the Regional Economic Communities, namely Arab Maghreb Union, Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, Community of Sahel-Saharan States, East African Community, Economic Community of Central African States, Economic Community of West African States, Intergovernmental Authority on Development and Southern African Development Community will be part of these discussions meant to accelerate Africa’s infrastructure development.
Other partners are: Afreximbank, the African Solidarity Fund, the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa, the European Union, Japan International Co-operation Agency, African Fund for Guarantee and Economic Co-operation, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH, World Bank, Intergovernmental Authority on Development and African Business.