Accelerating Africa’s Infrastructure Development to be at core of Second Dakar Financing Summit deliberations
Click on the link to register: https://www.dakarfinancingsummit.org
For Africa to develop world-class infrastructure, key stakeholders – governments, business, investors and development partners must come together to find ways to more effectively finance infrastructure projects.
This is the objective of the 2nd Dakar Financing Summit for Africa’s Infrastructure Development (DFS-2), which will be held in Dakar, Senegal at the Abdou Diouf International Conference Centre (CICAD) from 1-3 February 2023.
Under the theme, “Maintaining the momentum towards world-class infrastructure in Africa”, the Summit seeks to catalyse public, private and blended funding for identified priority infrastructure projects. Specifically, it aims to generate and galvanise private sector interest in specific regional infrastructure projects and to mobilise substantial funds dedicated to the preparation of these projects.
Infrastructure development is a key driver of progress. A recent World Bank report showed that the poor state of infrastructure in many parts of Africa reduces national economic growth by two percentage points each year and causes business productivity to decline by up to 40%.
The 1st Dakar Financing Summit provided solutions to accelerate the implementation of the first Priority Action Plan of Africa’s blueprint for infrastructure development, the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA).
“AUDA-NEPAD has built on the outcomes of the first Dakar Summit to develop tools and instruments for PIDA implementation and adequate financing is now needed to put these tools to effective use and advance implementation of the second PIDA Priority Action Plan (PIDA PAP 2) ,” says Nardos Bekele-Thomas, AUDA-NEPAD Chief Executive Officer.
“Together with project sponsors from AU member states, we will present specific PIDA projects focusing on corridor development and trade and investment promotion. This will enable us to hold robust exchanges and come up with practical approaches for the financing of these priority projects which are so critical for Africa’s economic integration”, said Bekele-Thomas.
The Summit will be opened by the president of Senegal and African Union (AU) Chairperson, H.E. Macky Sall and attended by Heads of States and representatives of AU Member States, the Private Sector, Development Finance Institutions (DFIs), institutional investors and development partners.
By bringing together the highest decision-makers from the public and private sectors, the Summit will feature a Presidential Roundtable and ministerial dialogues that will provide the space to find practical ways to accelerate the implementation of PIDA by improving the outlook for financing of project preparation and aligning project needs with existing funding initiatives.
Additionally, through project deal-rooms, potential investors will also have an opportunity to discuss the financial viability of projects with the member state project-sponsors.
The Summit will be hosted by the Republic of Senegal, the African Union Commission (AUC) and the African Union Development Agency – NEPAD (AUDA-NEPAD) in partnership with the African Development Bank and United Nations Economic Commission for Africa
Click on the link to register: https://www.dakarfinancingsummit.org