The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) participated in the Africa Infrastructure & Energy Conference (AIEC), hosted by Financial Markets Indaba, where the Bank showcased its innovative blended finance approach to mobilising private capital and accelerating the delivery of strategic infrastructure projects across Africa.
Representing Afreximbank, Victor Mashoko, Head of Trade Finance and Correspondent Banking, presented the Bank’s blended finance framework, demonstrating how the strategic combination of concessional, development and commercial capital can transform infrastructure concepts into bankable, investment-ready projects.
His presentation emphasised that Africa’s infrastructure challenge is not a lack of investment opportunities or available capital, but rather the need to mobilise financing at scale through effective project preparation, innovative risk allocation and stronger collaboration between public and private sector stakeholders.
Afreximbank highlighted five interconnected pillars that underpin its infrastructure financing strategy: project preparation, risk mitigation, capital mobilisation, insurance and risk transfer, and institutional investor participation.
The Bank demonstrated how these pillars work together to improve project bankability by supporting feasibility studies and transaction advisory services, providing guarantees and structured payment security mechanisms, arranging syndicated financing, facilitating insurance solutions, and attracting pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, insurers, commercial banks and development finance institutions into infrastructure transactions. This integrated approach is designed to reduce project risks, improve risk-adjusted returns, accelerate financial close and unlock significantly greater levels of private investment.
The presentation also showcased Afreximbank’s broad range of financial instruments supporting infrastructure development, including project-related financing, guarantees, asset-backed lending, receivables financing, lines of credit, future flow pre-financing, note purchase programmes and specialised risk-bearing solutions. Beyond financing, the Bank continues to provide trade information, advisory services and structured risk-sharing mechanisms that enable governments and project sponsors to attract long-term commercial capital into critical infrastructure sectors.
A key focus of the presentation was the importance of syndication as a catalyst for infrastructure investment. Afreximbank demonstrated how it acts as an anchor lender, mandated lead arranger, structuring bank, facility agent and risk distributor to crowd in significantly larger pools of capital from African and international financial institutions.
The Bank cited its role in arranging a syndicated financing package of approximately US$4 billion for the Dangote Refinery, as well as mobilising more than US$700 million through syndicated financing structures for the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC), illustrating its ability to leverage its balance sheet to attract substantial third-party investment into strategic infrastructure and energy projects.
The presentation further highlighted the critical role of insurance and risk-transfer solutions in strengthening project bankability and improving investor confidence. Working with regional and international insurance partners, export credit agencies and political risk insurers, Afreximbank supports infrastructure projects through political risk cover, construction all-risk insurance, credit insurance, performance bonds and climate resilience solutions. These instruments help reduce lender exposure, lower financing costs, improve credit quality and expand institutional investor participation in infrastructure transactions across the continent.
Concluding the presentation, Afreximbank reaffirmed that Africa’s infrastructure future will be driven by partnership-based financing models that bring together governments, development finance institutions, commercial investors, insurers, capital markets and project sponsors around a common objective of delivering sustainable infrastructure.
The Bank emphasised that success should be measured not simply by the volume of public or concessional funding deployed, but by the amount of private capital mobilised, the number of projects reaching financial close and the tangible infrastructure delivered to support Africa’s industrialisation, regional integration, energy transition and long-term economic transformation.
Afreximbank’s participation at the Africa Infrastructure & Energy Conference underscored its pivotal role in advancing innovative financing solutions that address Africa’s infrastructure financing gap. By demonstrating how blended finance, project preparation, risk mitigation, syndication and strategic partnerships can mobilise significantly greater volumes of private capital, the Bank reinforced its position as a trusted catalyst for infrastructure investment across the continent.
Its presentation highlighted the importance of collaboration between governments, development finance institutions, commercial lenders, institutional investors and the private sector in transforming investment opportunities into bankable projects that accelerate infrastructure delivery, strengthen regional integration, support industrialisation and drive sustainable economic growth across Africa.