Harare – The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) entered into a cooperation with Aenergy to develop a low carbon sustainable economy and a climate finance strategy to support projects and national initiatives in the sector across Africa.

The cooperation agreement, signed on the sidelines of the Afreximbank Annual Meetings and 25^th Anniversary celebrations on Saturday, will support trade and promote low carbon technologies by attracting financing and specialized resources for energy generation, mainly for the renewable, and transportation sectors; develop investment funds, such as the African Innovation Climate Fund; and enable Afreximbank to be the first multilateral bank in Africa to issue green bonds in partnership with top tier stock exchange platforms.

Speaking during the signing ceremony, Executive Vice President, Business Development and Corporate Banking, at Afreximbank, Amr Kamel said that the facility was a huge opportunity for climate finance for African countries.

“It will create value from environmental assets and promote emissions of green bonds to support African governments and African companies in their pursuit of infrastructure investments and will sustain their social and economic development”.

Also speaking at the same event, Global Head of Climate and Social Finance at Aenergy, Divaldo Rezende said that “with Aenergy’s over 15 years’ experience in the climate change sector, the agreement was an opportunity pipeline that may enable it to issue at least $850 million in green bonds in the next five years, given its experience in the space and Afreximbank’s capacity to leverage African participation in innovative financial mechanisms.”

In 2017, multilateral development banks made commitments totaling $35.5 billion for climate finance, with Africa receiving only $2.3 billion, or less than one per cent. In the context of fighting climate change and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, green bonds are considered strategic to the development of a low carbon economy in Africa.

Participating from Afreximbank in the discussions leading up to the agreement were: Director, Advisory and Capital Markets (ACMA) Ibrahim Sagna, Director, Legal Services; Samallie Kiyingi, Dr. Christiane Abu Lehaf of the Research and International Cooperation Department; Joy Albright of the Legal Services Department; and Peter Zulu of ACMA.

Aenergy was represented by Jorge Neto Morgado, Co Chief Executive Officer; Pedro Bento Bento, Chief Operating Officer and Mr. Rezende.

In January this year, Afreximbank announced the coming on board of Angola-based Pan-African conglomerate Aenergy as a shareholder, following its successful subscription to Class “B” shares of the African multilateral trade finance bank.

The shareholding became effective on 25 January and followed discussions between the Bank and representatives of Aenergy led by the founder, Ricardo Machado, and Jorge Morgado, co-CEOs of the company.

Aenergy, which started operations in Angola, is a Pan-African “end-to-end solutions provider”, integrating structured financing and aggregated technology to deliver innovative and competitive solutions for new public-private strategic investment in Africa led by main players from the continent, with its current focus being on Angola, Cameroon, Cote d´Ivoire, Ghana and Mozambique.

Aenergy has services spanning project development, procurement, logistics, engineering and execution; operations and maintenance services; and training, industrial manufacturing/assembly, with a long-term commitment to performance-driven technical assistance focused on digitalization to enhance localization and empower the final client.

The company develops projects to the highest international standards and implements projects in several industries, namely gas-to-power energy production, oil and gas, rail transportation, industrial installation and mining services.

Consistent with Afreximbank’s founding philosophy as a public private partnership, the Bank’s shareholders are a mix of public and private entities divided into four classes and consist of African governments, central banks, regional and sub-regional institutions, private investors and financial institutions, as well as non-African financial institutions, export credit agencies and private investors.

Class “A” shareholders are African states, African central banks and African public institutions, including the African Development Bank, while Class “B” is made up of African private investors, mainly financial institutions and corporates.

Class “C” shares are held by non-African investors, mostly international banks and export credit agencies, while Class “D” shares can be held by any investor.