Africa poses unique opportunities for the development of infrastructure across the continent.  There is growing demand for the development of transport, energy, ICT & telecoms infrastructure requirements supported by a need for financing. To address some of these opportunities and explore the business case linked to the development of African infrastructure, the annual Infrastructure Africa Business Forum will be hosted in October 2018, 9 -10, at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Large infrastructure projects are expensive, complex and require adequate and transparent planning and preparation. According to the Brookings Institute, policymakers should separate political promises from technical decisions that should be based on appropriate evaluation methods to assess costs and benefits.  To avoid the “white elephants” of the past, governments should improve infrastructure planning and assessment, assess risks from execution, avoid cost overruns and carefully assess expected maintenance costs.

The Business Forum will focus on infrastructure development project opportunities with focused project presentations from various Africa countries.  The aim of the event is to bring the projects to the developers.   This is the 7th annual edition of the Infrastructure Africa Business Forum, which has attracted a stellar line-up of speakers and participants.

Africa needs to expand the availability of project preparation financing and attract new sources of capital.  The Business Forum will discuss how to take infrastructure projects from identification through concept design to financial close.

Expert speakers will discuss key issues such as:

• Feasibility testing and financial and legal structuring;
• Capital-raising;
• The need to implementing new laws and regulations;
• Establishing new institutions and processes to support project cycle and downstream project life-cycle activities; and
• Project preparation for PPPs and regional projects.