Jean-Michel Severino, AFD’s Chief Executive Officer, was in South Africa (Johannesburg and Cape Town) on November 23rd to 27th, 2009.
This visit underlined the spread of AFD’s cooperation actions and parterships built since 1994 and reflected the diversity of AFD’s developmental approaches and its innovative vision of the role of a Development Financing Institution in today’s world.
The visit included the signing of four funding agreements for a total of 320 million euros, symbolising the three main pillars of intervention of AFD in South Africa :
-Giving previously disavantaged people access to essential services (funding to National Housing Finance Corporationto finance affordable housing) through municipalities (credit line to DBSA)
-Supporting economic growth, via important infrastructure programme within the contra cyclic role of AFD (loan to Transnetfor the extension of Cape Town port)
-Encouraging the preservation of Public Goods and the fight against climate change (funding of a research programme on Carbon Capture and Storage (CCSC), implemented by the Department of Energy via the Central Energy Fund)
Furthermore, a grant agreement was signed with the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation, in line with the committment made by President Sarkozy during his visit to South Africa in 2008.
Jean-Michel Severino has also met with partners of Proparco : CAPITEC Bank and the first African rating agency, Global Credit Rating.
He also had a tour of the extension of O.R. Tambo airport which has been partially financed by AFD through a loan to ACSA.
Last, but not least, Jean-Michel Severino met with the Minister of Finance, Mr Pravin Gordhan, and the Deputy Minister of International Relation and Cooperation, Ms. Susan Van Der Merwe.
ABSA – Award ceremony to 200 new estate agents.
In South Africa the new as well as the second-hand Affordable Housing sector is not dynamic. The public authorities aim at boosting it. The 40-million euros credit line funding from AFD to ABSA, a Barclay’s Group subsidiary and leader on the affordable housing, permitted to generate a financial advantage of 3 million euros partly dedicated in 2009 to implement an estate agents training for socially and historically disadvantaged people.
This program aims at training new specialized estate agents on affordable housing. On October 18th 2009, in Johannesburg, a graduation ceremony rewarded the first 200 specialized estate agents who obtained their diplomas. Pascal Grangereau, Deputy Regional Representative, and Guillaume Le Bris, Investment Officer, stood for AFD Johannesburg agency.
These agents, capable of mastering the theoretical and operational knowledge of the affordable housing market, can communicate efficiently through 11 languages (such as Zulu, Xhosa and Sotho) on the opportunities of the housing market for low incomes. They are trained to help prospective owners to manage their budgets and better understand the contractual and administrative framework of this particular sector.
Training for three South African banks to the Carbon Footprint tool
On the frame of a 120-million euros credit line instruction at three South African banks dedicated to fund energy efficiency and renewable energies projects, AFD has engaged a dialogue with local actors on the use of the carbon footprint as a tool to assess how much carbon is produced by these projects.
A presentation from the meeting of ministries, funders and local banks made possible for the agency to present: its strategy for the support of clean energies, the credit line forecast to be allocated at the end of the year, as well as the Carbon Footprint tool, used by AFD since 2007 in order to gauge the carbon footprint of the projects that it finances. On this occasion, French Embassy deputy head / first counsellor (?), Phillippe Orliange, exposed the future positions held by France during the next Copenhagen Conference on climate change (2009).
This presentation has been followed by a training which was attended by local banks’ teams so that they became familiar with this new tool. This approach aimed at transmitting to the banks the tool and the way to use it properly. Thus, when local banks will identify projects to finance, it will be possible to know the concrete impact of these projects in terms of tonnes of carbon dioxide saved. AFD resolutely focused on having a better understanding of the impacts of its funding on the climate change. Accordingly, AFD Group endeavours to assess carbon dioxide emissions and those avoided for a predominant and rising part of its portfolio’s project. The environmental credit lines standing for almost 50% of the Johannesburg regional AFD agency’s commitment to fight against climate change, consequently it is essential to involve local banks in this approach. The ABSA, NedBank and IDC banks, which took part to the training, have been highly interested in the tool itself, its simplicity of use and the results obtained.
This training was the first organized for the AFD Group’s partner banks and should be followed by similar initiatives in other emergent countries.
This event has been followed by two articles from South African’s newspapers:
The Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa Limited (IDC) has received a €30M (approximately R400M) credit line from Proparco, a subsidiary of the French Development Agency (AFD), based in Paris.
The agreement was signed in Johannesburg on Thursday, May 28, 2009 in the presence of IDC Chief Financial Officer Gert Gouws, the French Minister for Foreign Trade, Anne-Marie Idrac, the Deputy CEO of French Development Agency (AFD), Jean-Michel Debrat and the Regional Representative of Proparco Southern Africa, Sophie Le Roy.
The IDC CFO said the line of credit will increase the state-owned lender’s capacity to lend in line with the institution’s strategic decision of investing over R60 Billion into the South African economy in the next five years.
“We have a strong working relationship with Proparco which is demonstrated by the fact that IDC is receiving its fifth credit facility from the institution. This loan will also boost our export credit finance which has proved to be a key stimulus for the South African economy,” Gouws said.
Regional Representative of Proparco Southern Africa, Ms Sophie Le Roy said; “This fifth transaction with the IDC meets a crucial need for hard currency in South Africa. The funds will benefit a wide range of South African businesses that need foreign currency to keep funding their activity."
World Environment Day" Projection of the Movie HOME by Yann Arthus Bertrand
The Agency of Johannesburg has participated in the launch of the movie « HOME » made by Yann Arthus Bertrand, on 5th June on the occasion of the « World Environment Day ». It has been agreed with all the “Alliance Française” in South Africa(Johannesburg, Port Elizabeth, Pretoria, Durban, Cape Town) that they would organise the screening of the film on their.premises.
At the Alliance Française in Johannesburg, the event attracted almost 200 people and a debate was also organized by the AFD after the viewing of the movie. The Regional Representative of AFD had invited : Professor Rautenbach, the South African specialist on climate change from the University of Pretoria to highlight the consequences of Climate Change in the region.
The French Ambassador, Mr Denis Pietton was invited to open this event and he reminded the commitment of France in the global fight against climate change in the world. This evening has proved a successful event both from our counterparts’ side who had been invited and also for the general public who usually attends the events at the Alliance Française.
5 May 2009: Seminar on Energy Efficiency in urban environment
AFD hosted a highly effective conference on Energy Efficiency in urban environment in Johannesburg on the 5th of May.
The conference, which attracted notable attendance from delegates in various fields of energy, offered a platform to share expertise between France and South Africa, to share views on French public policies show casing the Reunion Island experience and to discuss constraints and options at different levels related to regulation, technology, finance and capacity.
A range of energy efficiency projects and initiatives as well as detailed policy options, technical solutions, and financial opportunities that optimise energy efficiency in urban environment were showcased by both South African and French representatives. These discussions, consisting of a panel of experts from national and local South African and French government representatives, private sector developers/professionals, and international experts, highlighted good solutions in energy efficiency.
AFD signed a ZAR 375 million loan agreement with the Namibia’s state-owned electricity provider - NamPower - for the financing of the Caprivi Link Interconnector.
The project, which is expected to be operational by the beginning of 2010, is of strategic importance for both Namibia and the region. It consists in a 970km 350kV transmission line linking the Namibia’s electricity grid with those of its neighbouring countries. Caprivi Link will ease NamPower’s access to hydro-electricity resources of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and of Zambia and will improve the dynamic stability of the South African Power Pool (SAPP) transmission system and the security of supply to Namibia.
The financing granted by AFD has been appraised and implemented jointly with the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW). It enables NamPower to secure globally N$ 1.1 billion from the three European development institutions. A EUR 15 million interest rate subsidy from the EU-Africa Infrastructure Trust Fund has also been implemented to mitigate tariff increases for the Namibian customers.
5 May 2009: Seminar on Energy Efficiency in urban environment