Spotlight beams on infrastructure financing

Public and private sector stakeholders are billed to convene and examine traditional and alternative sources of financing the country’s infrastructure needs. Organisers of the inaugural infrastructure and asset owners’ forum slated for this week, MNCapital Group and African Alternative want to explore the role of pension funds and insurers in the country’s infrastructure financing ecosystem. “It will commence the industry-led efforts to address the lack of deep in-house experience which prevents trustees and investment committees from safely allowing their investment teams to invest in infrastructure. “At the same leverage of the expertise of professionals and investors across Africa to develop infrastructure investment products specific to the needs of Botswana,” said Michael Ndinisa, MNCapital Group Chief Executive Officer. Ndinisa said the summit is the first step towards developing an ecosystem of asset owners, fund managers and investment professionals with an appetite to invest in infrastructure. He further said the forum is ultimately a wake-up call to all stakeholders in the industry to come together for fruitful co-operation for the betterment and economic well-being of the country. Some of the speakers expected include Gosego January, Chief Executive Officer of Debswana Pension Fund, Ahmed Attout, Chief Capital Markets Officer of African Development Bank (AfDB), Vuyo Hlompho Ntoi, Investment Director - Head of Southern and Central Africa at African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM) and Nathaniel Munetsi, Head of Structured Finance for Gauteng Infrastructure Financing Agency.