Japan pledges $30bn for Africa
Investment to boost growth
JAPAN would invest $30 billion (R430bn) to boost Africa’s economic growth and infrastructure over the next three years, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said as he sought to win over national leaders being wooed by China and the US.
The Asian economy’s planned investment on the continent of 1.2 billion people showed it had “faith in Africa’s future”, Abe told the heads of states gathered in Nairobi for the sixth Tokyo International International Conference on African Development.
Pledging support
Thirty-four heads from across the 54-nation continent, including those from South Africa, Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Uganda, are attending the high-level gathering being held outside Japan for the first time.
The amount pledged includes private sector investment and $11bn left over from a $32bn commitment made at the previous meeting in 2013.
In pledging more support, Japan is competing for influence on the continent with the US, China and former European colonial powers such as Britain and France. China, whose investments in subSaharan nations have risen 40fold since 2003, pledged $60bn for the continent at a similar summit by President Xi Jinping in South Africa last year.
The money was to be spent on interest-free loans, preferential financing and funding to support development.
The US, on the other hand, said it would invest $14bn at the US-Africa Leaders Summit in 2014.
About $10bn of Japan’s planned investment was earmarked for electricity generation projects and upgrading urban transport systems and ports, Abe said.
Pledge by the US at US-Africa Leaders Summit in 2014
The nation will work with the African Development Bank to boost private sector investment on the continent struggling with intermittent power outages, dilapidated infrastructure, poor sanitation and grinding poverty.
Japan, which invested $47bn on the continent over the past 23 years, wanted to connect Africa and Asia through sea lanes, Abe said.
“Let us make this stretch