Africa investor (Ai) Infrastructure Investment Summit mobilises domestic capital
Cape Town, South Africa; 8 May 2013: Africa investor (Ai), a leading international investment and communications group, yesterday successfully closed the Africa investor (Ai) CEO Infrastructure Investment Summit and Awards in Cape Town, South Africa, which gathered over 200 infrastructure investment leaders. The Summit’s theme was mobilising domestic capital and skills for infrastructure investments in Africa.
The Summit was opened by Hubert Danso, Chief Executive Officer and Vice Chairman of Africa investor (Ai), with the keynote address delivered by Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, the Chairperson of the African Union Commission.
Over the last decade, the Ai CEO Infrastructure Investment Summit has established itself as the must-attend African platform for the international infrastructure investment community and African public and private sector project sponsors and project developers seeking partnerships and capital for their projects.
The Summit delivered on its three key objectives for the day, which were to facilitate infrastructure transactions through Ai Capital; showcase African infrastructure investment success stories through the Ai Infrastructure Investment Awards, and to consult and inform the agenda for the annual Africa investor (Ai) CEO Institutional Investment Summit at the New York Stock Exchange, during the UN General Assembly in New York, and the World Bank-Ai Strategic Bankers’ Dialogue during the upcoming World Bank Annual Meetings.
The summit hosted a number of dynamic CEO-led discussion panels on mobilising African capital from sovereign wealth funds and pension funds; banking unsolicited bids in Africa; an investor’s clinic on de-risking strategies for African projects; a Presidential Projects Roundtable; a series of project pitches; a dialogue on project preparation, and sectoral sessions on energy investments, transport, and banking water and sanitation projects.
Hubert Danso, CEO and Vice Chairman of Africa investor, speaking on mobilising African capital, said; “Whilst recognising the need and importance of ensuring that infrastructure is written into the heart of investment policies of African pension and sovereign wealth funds, we need to understand their concerns and create instruments and an environment for them to invest more into infrastructure in Africa and with greater confidence.” He also called for a crowding in of public and private resources to invest in a venture capital style into private sector project developer teams with a focus on infrastructure projects that have catalytic job creation potential.
The Summit also hosted the prestigious 2013 Africa investor (Ai) Infrastructure Investment Awards ceremony.
Summit partners included: The African Union; The World Bank; The African Development Bank; NEPAD; Africa investor (Ai) Capital; Rand Water; Central Energy Fund; Rand Merchant Bank; Bunengi Group and USAID, as well as Emerging Stars and Frost and Sullivan.
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Note to Editors
For more information on the Africa investor (Ai) CEO Infrastructure Investment Summit and Awards, contact Catherine Wright on +27 11 783 4043 or cwright@africainvestor.com.
About Africa investor – www.africainvestor.com
Africa investor is a specialist investment and communications firm advising governments, international organisations and businesses on communication strategies for capital market and foreign direct investments in Africa. Africa investor publishes Africa investor, the leading international newsstand magazine for Africa’s investment decision makers; maintains the Africa investor 40 Investors’ Index, hosts the Ai Index Series Summit & Awards and the Africa investor Infrastructure Projects Summit & Awards, among other events.
