CDC Group, the UK’s development finance institution, announced last week that it had invested close to £2.2bn in total in African businesses in the last two years – beating its 2020 Africa Investment Summit pledge of £2bn.
CEO Nick O’Donohoe said: “I am delighted that we exceeded the ambitious target we set at the Africa Investment Summit held in London in 2020. This was during a period when CDC rapidly pivoted to support our portfolio and mitigate the economic fallout of the pandemic in the countries in which we invest.”
Last year, CDC group (to be renamed British International Investment in March 2022 ) secured its largest ever deal in Africa which it says is worth up to $1.7 billion. A partnership with global logistics provider DP World will boost Africa’s global trade through port expansion in Senegal, Egypt and Somaliland. Read more: INTERVIEW: Development finance must mobilise trillions of dollars to fight climate injustice
Other key investments over the past two years include $40m towards the independent fibre and cloud provider in Africa , Liquid Telecom’s expansion . And in May 2021, the CDC group, alongside Safaricom Plc, Vodacom Group, Vodafone Group, Sumitomo Corporation, received a licence to operate telecom services as part of the Global Partnership for Ethiopia .
Over the next five years, CDC Group says it will focus on investing in clean infrastructure with at least 30 per cent of the total investment by value going into climate finance. Between £1.5bn and £2bn every year between 2022 and 2026 will be invested to support the UK government’s ‘Clean Green Initiative.’
Chris Chijiutomi, CDC Group’s director and head of infrastructure equity, Africa and Pakistan, said: “Clean infrastructure investment …will go beyond renewables. Clean water provision, forestry and agritech, for example, will become increasingly important moving forward.”
Header Image: Courtesy of CDC
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