This archive report was first published on 7 July 2020.
On July 7, 2020, the World Bank Board of Directors approved $425 million in International Development Association (IDA) financing to support the provision of infrastructure finance in Eastern and Southern Africa.
The Regional Infrastructure Financing Facility project (RIFF) aims to address the long-term infrastructure funding gap in the region, which has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Eastern and Southern Africa suffers from ailing infrastructure, particularly in the power sector, where effective power generation is less than the installed capacity by 20-30 percent due to drought, lack of maintenance, and general system losses of electricity.
Ms. Deborah Wetzel, World Bank Director of Regional Integration for Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and Northern Africa, noted that the COVID-19 pandemic threatens the development gains made over the past years and that the new operation will help address the long-term infrastructure funding gap through a regional approach focused on private financing.
Through the Trade Development Bank (TDB), the RIFF will provide long-term infrastructure finance that will contribute to job creation and present cross-border benefits in terms of trade and investment flows or transfers of technology.
The project will also facilitate access to debt financing for SMEs in infrastructure value chains and off-grid, helping them to keep running and expanding to underserved markets.
The Regional Infrastructure Financing Facility project is a joint effort between the World Bank and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), which is providing TDB a first-of-its-kind credit enhancement of EUR 334.4 million on a ten-year loan from private commercial banks.
