The African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM) has just endowed its African Infrastructure Investment Fund 3 (AIIF3) with 80 million dollars to finance sustainable development projects in Africa south of the Sahara. The fund already has numerous assets in several sectors, including green electricity.
The $80 million recently raised by African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM) is intended to fund its African Infrastructure Investment Fund 3 (AIIF3) for infrastructure investments in the power, transport and digital infrastructure sectors in sub-Saharan Africa.
AIIM, which has already mobilised $400 million for AIIF3 since the advent of Covid-19, estimates that its funds will increase its assets in Africa tenfold. “Thanks to the focus on medium-sized operations with shorter construction periods, seven of the assets in the AIIF3 portfolio are already operational and operating in line with their initial investment thesis, and two more assets are expected to start commercial operations in early 2021, bringing the fund to profitability,” says the Cape Town, South Africa-based investment fund manager.
For example, the AIIF3 fund has taken equity stakes in three of Bboxx’s portfolio companies, namely Bboxx Kenya, Rwanda and DRC, through a holding company called Beyond Energy Investments. In these three markets, Bboxx has deployed more than 100,000 solar home systems and is currently expanding its product offering to include other value-added services such as green cooking from biogas.
The fund has also launched AIIM Hydroneo, a joint venture with Hydroneo Afrique, a subsidiary of Mecamidi. The aim of the joint venture is to exploit Africa’s hydropower potential, mainly through run-of-river plants, which have a lower environmental and social impact than large-scale hydropower projects.
Jean Marie Takouleu
