Garnering a potential of $1 billion worth of investments, Egypt has become the 32nd member and the first sovereign shareholder in North Africa for the Africa Finance Corporation(AFC), according to a statement released on March 7.
The pan-African financial institution, which was founded in 2007, has already pinpointed several infrastructure projects across Egypt’s renewable energy, natural gas, heavy industries, technology, telecom, banking, and finance industries. That is excluding an already existing investment by the enterprise, worth $265 million in Egypt.
“This equity investment is a testament to our confidence in AFC’s roles as a trusted partner in delivering transformational impact in Egypt and overall, in Africa [sic]. We look forward to boosting our partnership with the corporation as we work together to develop the key infrastructure project in the pipelines,” said Minister of Finance in Egypt Mohammed Maiit.
The AFC is a corporation that is working towards reaching a net-zero economy within Africa. It is doing so within the scope of optimizing the continent’s natural resources while heeding to the transmissions from fossil fuels.
“We look forward to expanding our collaboration to elevate Egypt’s economy through delivering resilient infrastructure in line with our mandate of catalyzing economic growth, value accretion, and industrial development for all African countries,” said AFC president and CEO, Samaila Zubairu in the statement.
Renewable energy in Egypt
Hailed as a location abundant in land, wind speed, and sunny temperatures, Egypt has been identified as an ideal spot for projects for renewable energy according to a report published by the International Trade Administration in 2022. The North-African country has been moving towards accelerating the production of renewable resources from 20% in 2022, to 42% by 2035, the report adds.
Egypt’s wind capacity has been registered at 1,640 megawatts, as of 2021, according to Statista. The North-African country has already established wind farms and solar projects in several areas. Ras Ghareb, located near the Gulf Suez, is an example of one of “the first independent power producer projects (IPP) in the country,” according to Power-technology.com.
Egypt’s Benban solar energy plant has also been commended for its capacity to increase the country’s energy generation as well as reduce its carbon footprint.
Investments in the ICT industry
The ICT industry, a part of which includes tech, is one of the fastest growing within the North African country, as per a report released by the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA).
In the fiscal year 2021/2022, the sector hit a growth rate of about 16,3%, the report adds. Moreover, development within the sector has created over 280 thousand jobs with women making up about 30% of that statistic. Africa has had its its tech sector spotlighted as a rising star over the past few years, with a fast evolution within the digital economy, according to an article released by Forbes in 2022.
An average of about $3 billion worth of investment was put into the ICT sector from 2020 to 2021, as per a report published by the International Trade Administration in 2022.
