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Mobilising infrastructure enterprise across Africa

By Emilio Cattaneo
03 February 2017   |   3:05 am
In December, 2016, The Guardian carried an article by Kayode Adeoye, that featured the facility at Rwanda’s Lake Kivu that extracts naturally occurring methane gas from the lake, then uses the methane to power an onshore electricity.....

Sir:In December, 2016, The Guardian carried an article by Kayode Adeoye, that featured the facility at Rwanda’s Lake Kivu that extracts naturally occurring methane gas from the lake, then uses the methane to power an onshore electricity generating station. The Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund (EIAIF) was co-arranger of the Lake Kivu project finance, structured the transaction and provided the long-term loan of US$10.6 million.

We backed the project’s developers, KivuWatt Ltd, because we had confidence in its management and its ability to overcome the unique technological challenges Lake Kivu presented. The team also demonstrated the right mix of business and management skills and commercial and personal integrity.

Like commercial lenders worldwide, EAIF requires comprehensive business and financial plans and carries out due diligence on the people involved in a project, before making a lending decision. EAIF takes the issues of corporate and personal integrity very seriously. We do so not only because our owners and our articles of association demand we do, but also because we believe that being good is good business.

Your readers may wish to know that EAIF is a long-term investor in some of Nigeria’s most important infrastructure projects.

Values, tenacity and innovation
EAIF is a commercial debt fund under the umbrella of the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG). PIDG and EAIF were established in 2002 to use the funds provided by several governments to mobilise private sector capital for infrastructure development in emerging economies.

Seven governments (and The World Bank Group) currently contribute funds to PIDG. In the case of EAIF, support comes from the governments of the UK, The Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland, as well as private sector banks and the German and Dutch development finance organisations. 

PIDG companies work with private sector infrastructure developers.
EAIF and PIDG were established with the three core objectives of mobilising private capital, stimulating economic development and alleviating poverty.

EAIF and IAM look forward to working with existing and new clients in bringing Nigeria more infrastructure to help power growth, stimulate enterprise, strengthen stability and eliminate poverty.
Emilio Cattaneo is the executive director of the Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund. 

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