Hussein Sefian, a former investment and corporate banker at BNP Paribas, newly founded his investment fund called the Acre Export Finance Fund 1. The fund seeks to invest US200 million dollars to fund climate-friendly projects. The Acre Impact Capital donates US200 million dollars to fund climate-friendly projects in Africa.
The Objectives of the Acre Impact Capital
Acre Impact Capital is an investment professional which manages the green financial strategies of international groups. The sole objective of the US200 million dollar fund recently initiated is to finance infrastructure projects in the areas of green transportation, food, health, renewable energy, water scarcity, and sustainable cities in Africa.
A Publication of the European Investment Bank in Line with the Project Financing
The investment is on the verge of securing US40 million dollar financing from the European Investment Bank (EIB).
In a recent publication on its website, the EIB clarifies that the “Fund will finance infrastructure projects in the renewable energy, health, food and water scarcity, sustainable cities and green transportation sectors in Africa. It will provide unsecured commercial loans to complement long-term loans provided by international banks that are guaranteed by Export Credit Agencies to finance sustainable greenfield infrastructure projects.”
Hussein Sefian as a Force Behind the Project
From research, Hussein Sefian’s experience will likely endorsee and authenticate the project thereby, positioning it to attract other investors for the fund that targets Africa as a whole. In 2018, when he left BNP Paribas where he handled the areas of sustainable investment strategies.
With the French group as the financial institution with the highest climate financing volume worldwide, he schemes to offer more margin to both business and government clients. This new approach is “to achieve risk-adjusted market-rate returns while mobilizing up to US 5.6 dollars in private sector capital for each dollar invested by the fund.”
The Need Behind the Project in Africa
The project was birth out of the resource and development limitations of Africa. And is in alignment with the expectations of a continent, Africa which has been in a continuous struggle to gather up resources for its sustainable development goals and also adapt to the negative foreseeable effects of climate change and environmental degradation.
Access to international capital markets remains incredibly expensive for African countries. Yet, they need special financing approaches to fix up the devastating effects caused to nature, mostly by advanced economies.
