World Bank’s investment arm to boost local-currency lending in Africa

The International Finance Corporation, the World Bank’s private investment arm, is expanding its local-currency lending and direct investments into companies across Africa to help projects reach the scale required to attract major global funds, Managing Director Makhtar Diop told the Africa Financial Summit in Casablanca on Monday.

“What investors tell us is that when we have assets of less than a billion, it doesn’t interest us,” said Diop.

“When you talk to BlackRock, when you talk to all these people, they tell you that we need a certain volume so that we can invest in our countries and have long-term resources,” he said.

• Reuters