Prof. Benedict Oramah, President and Chairman of the Board of Direc­tors of Afreximbank, joined by Rania Al-Mashat, Minister of International Cooperation of Egypt, launched the Afreximbank Intra-African Engineer­ing, Procurement and Construction (EPC) Contract Promotion Programme during the Presidential Summit of the Intra-African Trade Fair 2023 (IATF2023).

Prof. Oramah told guests that the programme was one of the bank’s ini­tiatives to support the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (afcfta), saying that it aimed to enable African companies to successful­ly bid for, win and execute infrastructur­al contracts in Africa through capac­ity building, twinning, market access opportunities, financing, guarantees and technology solutions.

“The EPC initiative will help African contractors to participate in the US$60 billion annual infrastructure investments within Africa, unlike the current prac­tice where most of the contracts go to non-African entities,” he said.

Ms Al-Mashat said the launch of the programme would have a positive im­pact on Africa’s agenda for sustainable development.

“It enhances the participation of African companies in infrastructure projects, provides more investment op­portunities and facilitates the exchange of information in order to expand partnerships and twinning agreements to drive growth in the engineering, construction and procurement sector,” she said.

He described the platform as a strate­gic and effective solution to tackle three significant challenges preventing Africa from reaching its potential, including lack of funding, insufficient informa­tion and a skills gap.

Addressing those challenges was especially crucial to tackling the infra­structural funding gap on the continent, estimated at US$170 billion annually, which could be fixed by promoting in­ternational co-operation and attracting investment in infrastructure.

She recommended promoting trans­parent communication between govern­ments and the private sector to bridge information gaps and tackle skills gaps by providing technical support, capacity building and skills development to build a skilled workforce.

The Minister said that Egypt was eager to boost private sector involve­ment in development endeavours and to link it to all funding and investment opportunities and technical support provided by multilateral and bilateral development partners, adding, “In order to promote these efforts, I have the honour to announce to you that the platform we are launching today will be linked to the Ministry of International Cooperation’s portal for private sector participation.”

She commended Afreximbank for leading the initiative and providing support to EPC companies in Africa through contracts worth over US$12 billion in the past five years, and appealed to international development partners to do more in supporting Afri­can companies by providing affordable and low-cost development finance.