Denis Opudo
Ghana became a member of Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) in February 2011. The country celebrated its 7th anniversary as a member of AFC in February 2018. It did that by becoming a member of a sovereign shareholder in the Corporation. Moreover, it celebrated the milestone with a $10 million initial equity investment. Furthermore, it committed $40 million to the Corporation. This represented the second bunch of its $50 million commitment to buy AFC equity.
In the period of the past ten years, AFC has brought investment worth over $1.2 billion in Ghana. It brought the $900 million investment to Ghana which was to be used in financing the 350MW Cenpower Kpone Independent Power Plant. More than 1,550 Ghanaian got jobs in the project during the construction. The project will be launched in the second quarter of 2018. AFC is the largest shareholder in the development company Cenpower. Moreover, it is the project’s lead developer. Another investment is the $60 million to Volta River Authority (VRA). This was for financing the finishing of the 220MW Kpone Thermal Power Plant. Part of it was to be used for conversion of 80MW Mine Reserve Plant in Tema to gas. This was to help in providing more electricity in Ghana. Another investment was the provision of a corporate loan of $60 million to VRA. VRA was to use the loan to finance the project’s operations. Moreover, AFC facilitated the provision of $50 million investment. This was part of the $400 million syndicated facility to Ghana Airport Company Limited. The money was meant to expand the Kotoka International Airport and other airports in Ghana.
AFC also brought the $50 million promissory notes funding investment in Ghana. This was to be used in the construction of Regional Hospitals. It also brought provision of a loan for the development of the Atuabo Freeport.
AFC is the largest shareholder in the Main One Fibre-Optic Cable Project. The project is worth $240 million. Moreover, the project is to help in connecting Ghana to the rest of the world. It does that via faster and more technologically advanced broadband capacity. AFC was allowed by the West Africa Power Pool (WAPP) to develop another major 450MW Power Plant in the Western Region of Ghana. This is because of its good services in Ghana.
