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Business Reporter

THE African Development Bank (AfDB) says it is being pushed by the Covid-19 pandemic to refocus priorities on developing infrastructure projects.

Following its recent virtual workshop, the regional financier said: “The Covid-19 pandemic has sharpened Africa’s already urgent need for added infrastructure spending.

“The African Development Bank estimates Africa’s infrastructure financing needs at up to $170 billion a year by 2025, with an estimated financing gap of as much as $108 billion a year.”

AfDB’s vice president for private sector, infrastructure and Industrialisation, Mr Solomon Quaynor, was quoted as saying African countries typically lack the fiscal space of wealthier ones to cushion the pandemic’s impacts. Against this background, he said the pandemic also posed a challenge for institutions like AfDB.

“We have to innovate, come up with better project preparation approaches. We’re going to design risk mitigation instruments because a lot of the private sector would not be willing to take the risk of Government obligations without a counter-guarantee,” he said.