AfDB wants increased spending on infrastructure

THE Covid-19 pandemic has sharpened Africa’s already urgent need for added infrastructure spending, says the African Development Bank (AfDB) vice president, Solomon Quaynor.

Mr Quaynor said the Covid-19 pandemic was pushing the continent to refocus priorities.

He said African countries typically lacked the fiscal space of wealthier ones to cushion the pandemic’s impacts. He said in Global Infrastructure Forum event on infrastructure project preparation that the pandemic posed a challenge also for institutions like the AfDB.

The AfDB hosted an online seminar on Wednesday as part of the fourth annual Global Infrastructure Forum, drawing together representatives of government, the private sector and multilateral development institutions to discuss strengthening infrastructure development in the Covid-19 pandemic era.

“Never waste a crisis. One of the potential positive impacts of this crisis is it’s pushing all of us to really focus priorities.

“And also make sure that we build quality infrastructure that maximizes the positive impacts to the economy and we also build it to withstand natural disasters, pandemics and epidemics going forward,” Mr Quaynor said.

He observed the need to be innovate, come up with better project preparation approaches and design risk mitigation instruments because a lot of private sector would not be willing to take the risk of government obligations without a counter-guarantee.

The AfDB estimates Africa’s infrastructure financing needs at up to US$170 billion a year by 2025, with an estimated financing gap of as much as US$108 billion a year. Chief of the Public and Private Partnership Thematic Group, Asian Development Bank, Srinivas Sampath, said there were many building blocks which could be put in place, both in terms of managing the crisis, as well as medium to long-term infrastructure.

Dr Sampath stressed the need for quality preparation of infrastructure projects, and making sure they were structured and attractive for the private sector to come in and invest.

“There is enough project preparation support available in the multilateral community,” he said.