Botswana urged to finance its infrastructure development
South African company, MNCapital Group has challenged the local development players to reconsider traditional and alternative sources of financing the country’s infrastructure needs. MNCapital is a leading international investment advisory and communication firm with focus on specialist institutional business development services to emerging and frontier market corporates, governments, pension and sovereign funds. Michael Ndinisa, MNCapital Group Chief Executive Officer said a lot of money is being taken outside the borders of Botswana. “There is no reason why Botswana, the gem of Africa and the continent’s success story on how to exploit the riches that come with natural resources should lack public infrastructure,” said Ndinisa. He bemoaned the amount of money managed in the country and funds expatriated out of the country. Ndinisa said Botswana is one of the countries that can finance its infrastructure needs leveraging on its local currency and hard assets. As part of efforts to change the narrative to Botswana’s infrastructure needs, MNCapital Group and African Alternative will host the first-ever Botswana Infrastructure Investment (BII) Summit and the Botswana Asset Owners and Managers (BwAOM) next month. The event slated for 20th and 21st February respectively convenes both public and private sector stakeholders to examine traditional and alternative sources of financing for Botswana’s infrastructure need. In addition, the asset owner’s forum will explore the role of pension funds and insurers on the country’s infrastructure financing ecosystem.According to Ndinisa, 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. Some of the speakers billed to lead the discussion at the events are Gosego January, Chief Executive Officer, Debswana Pension Fund, Davies Pwele, Head of SADC Coverage, Business Development at Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), Vuyo Hlompho Ntoi, Investment Director of Southern and Central Africa at African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM) and Ahmed Attout, Chief Capital Markets Officer at African Development Bank (AfDB). MNCapital is a leading international investment advisory and communication firm with focus on specialist institutional business development services to emerging and frontier market corporates, governments, pension and sovereign funds.