As British and African business leaders and executives gather in London, the UK's public development finance institution CDC Group announces that it has made $400 million in commitments in Africa and is committed to investing a total of £2 billion within two years.

On the occasion of the UK-Africa Summit, which takes place on 20 January in London, the development finance institution CDC Group announced the signing of a series of new partnerships, totalling nearly 400 million dollars (360 million euros).

These commitments are mainly intended to provide African banks with greater liquidity to support SMEs and microenterprises, "the foundation of any healthy economy," said Nick O'Donohoe, the chief executive of CDC, quoted in the group's statement. Among the new agreements, a $100 million trade finance loan for South Africa's Absa Bank, a Memorandum of Understanding to allocate $100 million to the IPC of Egypt and a $75 million trade finance agreement with the Trade and Development Bank (TDB) to support bank loans to SMEs in 32 African countries.

Renewable energy and support for SMEs
These new commitments also include the Participation of the British Group in various investment funds, always with a view to financing SMEs ($27.5 million for the Mediterrania III Fund, $20 million for the Adiwale I Fund and $20 million in the Verod Capital Growth III Fund). TL.com TIDE Africa, a venture capital fund that supports sub-Saharan African companies in technology and innovation, was also awarded $15 million.

In addition to supporting SMEs, CDC wanted to "accelerate the deployment of solar energy and other renewable technologies, with a $10 million debt agreement with Mettle Solar Africa to accelerate the deployment of solar energy in South Africa and Namibia and an investment of $20 million. of dollars in the Metier Sustainable Capital II Fund, focused on renewable energy focused on sub-Saharan Africa.

"Opportunity to seize"
In addition to these actual commitments, the British group has announced its intention to invest 2 billion pounds (2.3 billion euros) over the next two years, which would lead it to double the size of its portfolio on the continent. "[UK] investors have a real opportunity to embrace the Sustainable Development Goals – in partnership with African countries and businesses – to tackle climate change, create jobs and skills, and bring about positive social and environmental change," says Nick O'Donohoe.

CDC, which bills itself as Africa's largest bilateral development investor, announces that it has provided more than 10% of all capital invested through Africa-focused private equity and invested in more than 700 African companies that collectively employed approximately 370,000 people in 2018.

Recent transactions in Africa include a $180 million investment in pan-African group Liquid Telecom to accelerate the rollout of its high-speed fiber optic network, and a $92 million capital injection into Nubian Suns' Egyptian project, one of the largest solar energy installations in the world.