Three more awards go to projects backed by the EAIF
Three more awards go to projects backed by the Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund, a company of the Private Infrastructure Development Group
“To have won against competition from so many infrastructure developments in highly advanced economies demonstrates the quality and vision of the companies we work with and the great advances being made by stable governments across Africa.” EAIF Chair, Patrick Crawford
- Madagascar Airports and Kigali Water Limited win Partnerships Awards
- Kigali Water receives Grand Prix Award for top project overall
- Three PIDG companies share credit for awards
- EAIF projects have this year won six awards from world-leading expert publications
- Fund nominated for two more awards to be announced in June
Two infrastructure projects backed by the Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund (EAIF), a company of the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG), have won in two categories of the Partnerships Awards, it was announced in London on 10th May. PIDG is funded by donors from seven countries (UK, Switzerland, Australia, Norway, Sweden, Netherlands, Germany) and the World Bank Group.
Best Utilities Project went to Rwanda’s Kigali Water Limited (KWL). Madagascar’s Ravinala Airports won Best Transport Project. Kigali Water was also named as the winner of the Projects Grand Prix, the top overall award for infrastructure. Both projects faced competition from infrastructure developments across the globe, including from the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. PIDG’s DevCo and its Technical Assistance Facility (TAF) also played key roles in the development and financing of the Kigali project.
The Partnerships Awards is the world’s largest event recognising and rewarding the best in Public Private Partnerships that provide essential infrastructure.
EAIF provides a variety of debt products to infrastructure projects promoted mainly by private sector businesses in sub-Saharan Africa. It helps create the infrastructure framework that is essential to sustained economic stability, business confidence, job creation and poverty reduction. To date, it has supported over 60 infrastructure projects across eight sectors in 21 sub-Saharan African countries.
EAIF-backed projects have now won six prestigious awards from specialist publications and organisations this year and have been nominated for two further awards by Africa Investor magazine. EAIF is managed by Investec Asset Management. Last year, Investec closed 10 projects on behalf of EAIF, lending US$200 million to projects in water, transport, renewable and traditional energy and telecommunications.
EAIF was the lead arranger of the debt finance on the Kigali Water project, which is owned by Metito, one of the world’s most experienced builders and operators of water treatment facilities. The Kigali plant will benefit some 500,000 people and deliver 40 million litres of clean water daily.
EAIF lent US$19 million of Senior Debt and US$2.6 million of Junior Debt to KWL. The TAF provided a US$6.25 million grant, which was a key element in bringing together the financing of the US$60.8 million project. Another PIDG company, DevCo, which is managed by the International Finance Corporation, provided initial financial support to the Government of Rwanda for the environmental, feasibility, financial, legal and technical assessments of the project.
Ravinala Airports is a Madagascar-registered company owned by Meridiam, an independent investment firm specialising in the development, financing, and management of long-term and sustainable public infrastructure projects. It is upgrading, modernising and expanding the facilities at two of Madagascar’s most important airports. Among the direct benefits of the project will be construction employment for locally-engaged people, and growth in the numbers permanently employed at the airports by Ravinala and in activities like security, baggage handling and retail. The project is expected to deliver c€3 million in taxes to the Malagasy government, over the first five years of the project.
Chair of EAIF, Patrick Crawford, says,
“We are proud and delighted to be so closely involved with these two innovative projects. To have won against competition from so many infrastructure developments in highly advanced economies demonstrates the quality and vision of the companies we work with, the great advances being made by stable governments across Africa and the strong development ethos of PIDG. For Kigali Water to go on to win the Grand Prix award is a supreme endorsement of KWL, of the EAIF business model and all involved in the PIDG family.”
Africa Investor magazine has nominated EAIF in the Project Development Fund of the Year and the Africa Sponsor of the Year categories. Another PIDG company, InfraCo Africa, has also been nominated in the Project Development Fund of the Year category. The winners will be announced on 18th June, during the Infrastructure Project Developers Summit being held in Mauritius.
In April, the KWL project won Water Deal of the Year at the World Water Summit in Paris. In London, in March it won IJGlobal’s Africa Water Deal of the Year. In February, Ravinala Airports won Thomson Reuters Project Finance International magazine’s Middle East and Africa region 2017 Transport Deal of the Year Award in London.