The African Development Bank and ILX Management B.V. (ILX) signed Sunday a partnership agreement to scale up investments and spur institutional investor capital mobilization for Sustainable Development Goals and climate-focussed private sector projects in the Bank Group’s regional member countries.
The signing ceremony took place at the offices of ILX Management in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
The cooperation arrangement enables the African Development Bank to deliver on its ambition to mobilize financial resources from institutional investors to bridge the significant financing gap required to meet the Bank’s High Five priorities: Light up and Power Africa; Feed Africa; Industrialize Africa; Integrate Africa and Improve the quality of life for the people of Africa. This partnership will allow the Bank and ILX to support non-sovereign operations in these key priority sectors. The High 5s are intrinsically linked to the SDGs.
At the same time, the arrangement offers ILX Fund pension fund participants the opportunity to benefit from the AfDB’s long-standing track record of successfully investing in key economic sectors across Africa. All loan investments are SDG or Climate Finance-focussed, while offering attractive risk-adjusted returns, combined with robust environmental, social and governance (ESG) safeguarding.
Hassatou N’Sele, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the AfDB Group, commented: “We are very pleased to be partnering with ILX to mobilize institutional capital with a Sustainable Development Goals focus. Our objectives are aligned, and the African Development Bank has a strong track record of structuring and financing projects with a strong development impact.”
Manfred Schepers, Founder and CEO of ILX, said: “We are delighted to have established this strategic partnership. The launch of this partnership demonstrates AfDB’s strong commitment to engage actively with European pension funds, as a key partner in its mobilization effort and contribution to sustainable growth across the African continent. We look forward to a long-term partnership with AfDB on behalf of our pension fund investors, which are becoming key counterparts to finance SDG and climate-finance projects across the emerging markets.”
Kitty van der Heijden, Director-General for International Cooperation, Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Netherlands said: “With this agreement, Dutch pension funds, ILX and the African Development Bank join hands to increase investments in the SDG and climate goals on the African continent. A very welcome step, as the challenges in achieving the SDGs, and the need to integrate the global climate commitments in African countries’ development pathways, are more urgent than ever.”