AfDB to invest $10m in Chapel Hill Denham Nigeria Infrastructure Debt Fund
THE AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK (AfDB), Africa’s multilateral development finance institution, has announced the board approval of an investment of $10 million in the Chapel Hill Denham Nigeria Infrastructure Debt Fund (NIDF).
According to a statement, the decision by the AfDB to invest in NIDF is a culmination of a detailed due diligence and review process undertaken by a multi-disciplinary team of AfDB experts over the past few months.
Commenting on the development, Bolaji Balogun, the chief executive officer of Chapel Hill Denham, said, “The decision by AfDB to support NIDF demonstrates the key role that NIDF is playing in unlocking domestic capital resources to finance the vast investment and financing needs for infrastructure in Nigeria.
“We hope that AfDB’s participation in NIDF will provide further encouragement to pension funds and other institutional investors in Nigeria to channel a greater proportion of their investment allocations to infrastructure, through a safe, strong and proven channel such as NIDF.”
Anshul Rai, the chief executive officer of NIDF, said that the development is one that will help NIDF incorporate the best practices on environmental, social and governance matters.
Rai said, “Since its inception in June 2017, NIDF has established a solid track record of performance and delivering strong, predictable returns to our unitholders. In a short period, the NIDF has emerged as the preferred financing partner of project sponsors and operators who seek to finance critical infrastructure in a sustainable way.
“At NIDF, we believe that financial returns are as important as the development impact (non-financial returns). With the help of AfDB’s expertise, NIDF is able to incorporate the best practices on Environmental, Social and Governance matters in its operations.”
Olawale Edun, Chairman, Chapel Hill Denham, expressed his satisfaction on the development: “Through NIDF, Nigeria has delivered an innovative solution for the infrastructure challenge shared by many countries across Africa. We thank AfDB for their support and recognition of the hard work put in by the NIDF team to make it a reality.”