AA / Dakar / Alioune Ndiaye
The Senegalese President and Chairman of the African Union, Macky Sall, on Thursday deplored the financing mechanisms imposed on African countries in the context of the construction of development infrastructure.
Sall was speaking at the opening ceremony of the 2nd Summit on Financing Infrastructure in Africa (Fsd 2) which is being held in Dakar from February 2 to 3 on the theme “Maintaining the momentum towards world-class infrastructure in Africa “.
“In Africa, infrastructure is still underfunded in volume and poorly funded in terms of interest rates and repayment terms,” he said in his opening address.
As an illustration of his remarks, Sall mentioned the case of Eximbank financing.
“In export financing, the famous Eximbank, if the rates appear low around 2.5% sometimes 3, it will be necessary to add the 10 or even 12% insurance rate”, he indicated, pointing abusive ratings from rating agencies and the overvalued perception of investment risk in Africa.
“The problem of financing will remain intact as long as the rules of current global economic and financial governance persist, which hinder access by African countries to substantial resources and under sustainable conditions,” Sall said.
For the President of Rwanda, Paul Kagamé, who is also chairman of the steering committee of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad), Africa has made important steps since the launch of the infrastructure development program in Africa. (Pida) in 2010.
“A lot of progress has been made since then, but the infrastructure gap for Africa is still significant. This summit is an opportunity to reduce the infrastructure cap for Africa for good”, he underlined.
Returning to the Summit, President Sall said that 20 projects will be presented during the “board room” sessions that will follow the ceremony.
Presentations that will serve as a “school case” to help materialize the other projects of the Pida priority action plan.
“61% of the 69 projects which were mentioned in the film (presented during the ceremony) which constituted the second priority action plan of Pida have not been the subject of a feasibility study”, noted the president. Hall.
He thus called for a synergy between the multilateral development banks, the financial and technical partners and the Nepad project preparation fund to improve the feasibility studies of priority projects.
The first summit on infrastructure financing was held in 2014 in the Senegalese capital.
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