Chairman, United Bank for Africa (UBA), Mr. Tony Elumelu, has commended the tremendous progress recorded by the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) under the successive chief executive officers since inception.
In his remarks at the AFC Day in London recently, Elumelu, who is a founding member of the Corporation, described the current CEO of AFC, Samaila Zubairu, as a unifier and a great person.
The Conference was Themed: ‘AFC As a Gateway to Global – Africa Trade and Investment.’
According to him, “as founders of AFC, we had big aspirations and everyday I am amazed and impressed at how Samaila and hos team are executing the vision, doing better than we envisaged.
“I have seen the rating for AFC improve significantly, and I am sure you and your team are not resting. I feel accomplished with what you guys are doing.”
Elumelu, who is also the Chairman of Transcorp Group as well as Founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, used the opportunity to advise AFC to identify projects and catalyse projects that have scale, impact and relevance for Africa.
He said: “This is very important, moreso at a time like this that the world is changing and changing very fast and no one but us can actually develop Africa. I speak not just as a founder but also as a beneficiary of AFC’s catalytic role on the continent.
“As Chairman of Transcorp Group, one of our investments was in the power sector. We know that access to electricity is very important to the development and transformation of Africa.
“We invested in that space, and AFC supported us. The first time was with about $120 million. I am happy to say we have paid back everything, but more importantly, that support was critical at that time, and we need more of such support for the private sector in Africa, especially at a time like this.
“We decided to go into energy space, we did a $1.1 billion transaction and AFC supported us also with $150 million, which is very well serviced today. These are signature transactions. Without AFC, for us in particular, that project may have been difficult to conclude. So I want to see the next 10 years and beyond we gather in Africa or any other part of the world, may be in China to celebrate more successes.”
AFC is majority owned by private investors the bulk of which are African financial institutions, Private investors own 62 per cent of the corporation.
A further 38 per cent is owned by the Central Bank of Nigeria. In addition to private investors owning shares, AFC’s allows African states (through their respective central banks, sovereign wealth funds, state pension funds or similar institutions) to be both shareholders and members of the corporation. As of December 2022, AFC had 40 member states.
The Corporation, to date, has invested over $ 11.5 billion in infrastructure projects across Africa.
