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Europe and Africa are facing unprecedented challenges, which must be tackled together. The COVID-19 and climate crises demonstrate that “no one is safe until everyone is safe”. It is in the interests of Europe to complement the recovery schemes being implemented at home with ambitious support for our African partners, who are among our closest neighbours. By working side by side to tackle development challenges, we can provide impetus for a strong, sustainable and inclusive recovery that will benefit us all.

As part of Team Europe, the European Investment Bank (EIB) stepped up its efforts to help African partners respond to the COVID-19 health and economic crisis. It provided €5 billion for new private and public investment across Africa in 2020 — a record annual commitment for the Bank — helping to deal with the immediate health emergency and mitigate the pandemic, and to address the economic effects of the crisis. This finance will back more than €12 billion of investments in 28 African countries, with 71% of the funding benefiting fragile or conflict-affected situations and the least developed economies. The projects supported are expected to contribute towards 210 million people getting vaccinated against COVID-19, 595 400 households being supplied with newly generated energy, 778 000 people enjoying an improved water supply, and farmers benefiting from 26 500 hectares of newly irrigated land and 3 076 hectares of newly planted forest. In addition, in July 2021, the EIB committed to support Africa’s first COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing plant in Senegal. This plant is set to produce as many as 25 million doses of an approved COVID-19 vaccine a month by the end of 2022. Together with our support for the COVAX facility, this is a key milestone in the EIB’s global efforts to address the health and economic challenges of COVID-19 and build a better future — yet a drop in the ocean in light of the size of the challenge. The European Union urgently needs to step up its efforts further.

The EIB will continue to support African partners to “build back better,” including by addressing the impacts of climate change. Here too, however, the financing gap is huge. A sustainable and inclusive recovery from COVID-19 will require an additional $1 trillion annually, on top of the $2.5 trillion annual gap in finance for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that existed before the crisis[1]. The impacts of the climate crisis only add to the needs. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has estimated that sub-Saharan Africa alone will need $30-$50 billion in additional finance annually to adapt to the impacts of climate change[2].

Africa’s recovery will depend on private firms sustaining and creating jobs, but previously thriving enterprises have been badly hit by the COVID-19 crisis. Data from enterprise surveys carried out in nine African countries during the pandemic period are consistent with a severe economic impact[3]. Around 88% of firms in the countries surveyed were experiencing decreased liquidity, and over 55% of them had temporarily closed at some point. Around 8% had filed for bankruptcy and 26% were overdue on financial obligations.

This publication examines opportunities for Africa’s financial sector to support the recovery. Continued access to finance has helped firms to stay afloat during the crisis period and there is an opportunity for Africa’s financial sectors to make an even bigger contribution to sustainable development in future. For example, African financiers are beginning to grasp opportunities in green finance, and banks are increasingly aware of the need to address the risks posed by climate change. Furthermore, digitalisation of the financial sectors has accelerated during the pandemic. Digital financial services offer a huge opportunity to expand access to finance to underserved firms and financial inclusion to groups that were previously excluded from formal finance, helping to improve livelihoods and tackle poverty.

The impacts of the COVID-19 crisis could persist and make it more difficult for the financial sector to support a smart, green and inclusive economy. The support of policymakers has helped maintain financial sector stability and soundness during the crisis. Nonetheless, many banks have been left with significant non-performing loans on their books, which may make them cautious about restarting lending. This would widen the large funding gap that African firms face[4], with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), startups and innovative firms particularly affected.

On September 15, the EIB’s Board endorsed a proposal to create a branch of the EIB focused on development finance. This reorganization will allow us to refocus our contribution to support the goals of the European Union and our partners outside the EU with even greater impact and efficiency. The EU Bank will be able to strengthen its development engagement, by placing more experts on the ground, and be a more effective partner for other multilateral and national development banks. And, we will be in a better position to pursue our global ambition in terms of the fight against climate change.

Under the new development branch, the EIB will continue working with African financial institutions to help them drive a private sector-led recovery. The EIB provides patient loans and equity to reinforce the capacity of these institutions to lend for a sustainable recovery, particularly targeting small and medium enterprises and investments in key areas such as climate, the digital economy, innovation and women’s entrepreneurship. We support a range of players and tailor our offering, including through local currency lending, to meet the full spectrum of sustainable development needs. To maximise development impact, the EIB complements its financial offering with technical assistance, advisory services and knowledge products, such as this report.

I hope you will find Finance in Africa useful and that the analysis contained in this report can inform sound and impactful investment decisions.

Werner Hoyer

President, European Investment Bank

[1] OECD, 2020. The OECD estimates that the COVID-19 crisis caused a shortfall in revenues of $0.7 trillion during 2020.

[2] IMF, 2020. Chapter 2: “Adapting to Climate Change in sub-Saharan Africa”. Available at https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/REO/SSA/Issues/2020/04/01/sreo0420.

[3] Data available at https://www.enterprisesurveys.org/en/graphing-tool.

[4] The financing gap facing SMEs was estimated at 17% of national income in 2017, based on data reported in International Finance Corporation, 2017.