Infrastructure and public services are essential to promoting sustainable economic growth. The private sector can help improve efficiency and delivery quality in power, water, transport, and sanitation. Health and education is another area where private investment can help.
IFC PEP Africa works in partnership with the IFC global transaction advisory services team to support private sector delivery of social infrastructure and services in sectors such as power, health and sanitation, education, water, and transport. Emphasis is placed on advising governments in Africa on structuring public-private partnerships and removing barriers to private sector participation in service delivery with a view to improving efficiency and expanding access for the poor. IFC PEP Africa also helps governments to proactively identify, package and market investment opportunities that can attract private participation.
Public Private Partnerships
Since 1986, IFC Advisory Services has supported over 100 public-private partnerships in 67 countries. Services include transaction support, advice on policy and regulatory issues, and optimizing commercial value while remaining sensitive to the economic and political context. IFC’s market position is unique. It is the only multilateral institution offering direct advisory services to governments on implementing private sector participation in transactions.
IFC has extensive experience in Africa supporting private investment in large infrastructure projects. These include: Telkom Kenya, Madagascar Ports, Moatize, Kenya Airways, Uganda Telecom, Cameroon Electricity (SONEL), South Africa National Parks, Gabon Water & Electricity, and Mauritania Telkom. These are pioneering, landmark transactions in difficult business environments that are often complex deals with multi-year implementation timetables.
Contact: Emmanuel Nyirinkindi
Telephone: +27 11 731 3000
Email: enyirinkindi@ifc.org
http://www.ifc.org/advisory
Small Scale Infrastructure
African nations have set ambitious targets of access to water and power through the Millennium Development Goals. They require innovative partnerships between governments and the private sector. IFC PEP Africa and IFC Advisory Services encourage private sector participation and support increased private sector investment by assisting governments to structure transactions and by building the capacity of governments, regulatory bodies, and the private sector. The focus is on developing and implementing new public-private models, based on output-based aid schemes or similar approaches that use public funds to provide subsidies to consumers directly or through intermediaries. IFC PEP Africa is currently developing programs to support increased local private sector participation in rural electrification in Madagascar and Uganda and water in small towns in Tanzania and Uganda.
Contact: Frances Sese Gadzekpo
Telephone: +27 11 731 3024
Email: FGadzekpo@ifc.org
Health and Education
IFC PEP Africa provides a package of assistance to health and education business owners and local financial institutions to facilitate the expansion of private service delivery to local communities. IFC PEP Africa's support is part of the Africa Schools Program, a $50 million integrated investment and advisory services program that encourages local banks to provide local currency financing to private primary, secondary, vocational, and tertiary schools. The program is already operating successfully in Kenya and Ghana, and has recently launched in Rwanda. In FY08, the Africa Schools Program helped 58 private schools in Ghana and Kenya to raise over $6.2 million in financing and increase student enrollment by 30,000.
IFC PEP Africa is also advising the govenment of Lesotho on a project to rehabilitate the country's leading hospital through a public private partnership. A similar private public partnership project in Botswana is helping to set up that country's second national university.
Contact: Samuel Akyianu, Program Manager
Telephone: +233 (21) 513-156
Email: sakyianu@ifc.org
Rural ICT Infrastructure
The Rural ICT Infrastructure program, focuses on increasing and improving access to telecommunications infrastructure to deliver telephony, financial services, and other value-added services to underserved market segments. The focus of this program has been in the areas of Mobile Money solutions and Village Phone products. These programs directly address specific market gaps by developing the necessary infrastructure and business models to meet the needs of underserved market segments.
MOBILE MONEY - aims to develop the infrastructure and business models to enable access to financial services in rural communities without depending on traditional bank branches that are often located great distances from where the underserved reside. Mobile Money products, such as payment systems and mobile banking have the potential to enable the delivery of banking services to significant portions of the unbanked population by lowering barriers to access. Reduced infrastructure costs associated with ‘branchless banking’, provide financial institutions the ability to better serve low-income consumers at reduced cost - savings they can pass on to low-income customers. Delivering low-cost banking services via mobile phone has promising potential to drive uptake of banking services among target populations. Key activities for this program include working with existing and potential IFC clients such as WIZZIT and FERLO to grow their customer base in their existing markets and support their expansion into other markets.
VILLAGE PHONE -The Village Phone Program enables select micro-entrepreneurs to provide telephone access in rural areas in partnership with IFC telecoms clients. The Village Phone Operators (VPOs) on-sell airtime in their communities. The VPOs receive training in the specifics of running a Village Phone business as well as general management and marketing skills. Additionally, the programs provide micro credit to the VPOs through MFIs, enabling them to purchase the equipment necessary to run their MSME. The Village Phone Program supports expanded access to telecommunications - a key IFC ICT sector strategy, and links into other IFC initiatives, particularly in the area of rural entrepreneurship development. IFC's Village Phone program is currently up and running in Nigeria, Malawi and Madagascar - programs in DRC, Burkina Faso and Mozambique are in the planning phase.
Contact: Colin Shepherd
Telephone: +27 11 731 3000
Email: cshepherd@ifc.org
