On May 6th, the international law firm released a report titled "Latest Development: The Transformation of Infrastructure Financing in Africa". The report believes that with the gradual recovery of the economy, there are already signs that funds are optimistic about the investment prospects of infrastructure in Africa, and it is expected that new types of financing will be gradually developed in the region.

The report pointed out that compared with the peak level after the financial crisis, the level of foreign investment in Africa has declined successively in 2019 and 2020. There are many reasons for the slowdown in infrastructure investment, and the new crown pneumonia epidemic is one of them. The negative impact of economic austerity has spread to Nigeria and South Africa, which means that the two largest economies in Africa have not provided the impetus for regional economic growth as in previous years. However, market fundamentals indicate that the African region has the potential to withstand pressure, and at the same time, as the global economy recovers, capital will begin to circulate. There are already signs that all sectors are optimistic about Africa's investment prospects. While commodity prices continue to rise, major transactions are regrouping. For example, the multinational mining company Sibanye-Stillwater recently pledged to invest 6.3 billion South African rand in infrastructure projects in South Africa.

The report pointed out that, in addition to traditional lending institutions and international partners, there is an urgent need to find and use new sources of financing for infrastructure gaps in energy supply, Internet access, and transportation in Africa. In addition to increasing the expected return on multilateral and bilateral loans, there is still room for development in bridging the gap in financing opportunities. However, it is extremely unlikely that commercial banks will fill this vacancy. According to the report, in 2020, only 84 projects received financing support from commercial banks, and the participation of commercial banks in development financial institutions (DFI) and export credit agencies (ECA) transactions continued to decline. Editor/Xu Shengpeng