AfDB, ILX Partner To Scale Up Investments In Africa
African Development Bank (AfDB) and ILX Management B.V. (ILX) have signed an agreement to scale up investments in the Bank Group’s regional member countries.
The bank, in a statement, said the partnership would also spur institutional investor capital mobilisation for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and climate-focused private sector projects on the continent.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the signing ceremony occurred at ILX Management’s offices in the Netherlands capital Amsterdam.
ILX’s investors are the Dutch pension fund asset managers, APG Asset Management (on behalf of ABP and bpfBOUW) and Achmea Investment Management (on behalf of Pensioenfonds Vervoer).
Other Dutch and European pension fund participants in ILX successor funds are expected to join in the future.
ILX Fund I provides a scalable 1 billion dollars private credit investment strategy to be deployed across emerging and developing countries, co-financing with global Multilateral Development Banks (MDB) and other DFIs.
The statement said the cooperation arrangement would enable AfDB to mobilise financial resources from institutional investors to bridge the significant financing gap required to meet its High Five priorities.
It listed the priorities to include light up and power Africa, feed Africa, industrialise Africa, integrate Africa and improve the quality of life for the people of Africa.
“This partnership will allow the Bank and ILX to support non-sovereign operations in these key priority sectors. The High 5s are intrinsically linked to the SDGs.
“At the same time, the arrangement offers ILX Fund pension, fund participants the opportunity to benefit from the AfDB’s long-standing track record of successfully investing in key African economic sectors.
“All loan investments are SDG or climate finance-focussed while offering attractive risk-adjusted returns, combined with robust environmental, social and governance (ESG) safeguarding,’’ it said.
According to the statement, APG Asset Management, the Netherlands’ largest pension provider, and Achmea Investment Management have committed $1,050 million to Emerging Market private credit fund ILX Fund I.
