African Development Bank approves US$14.12 million to support Nigeria’s membership in African Trade Insurance (ATI) Agency

Once membership formalities in ATI are finalized, Nigeria could benefit from gross political and commercial risk insurance cover on total investments and trade amounting to over US$ 5 billion by 2020

The African Development Bank Group, through its Trade Finance operations, has approved a US$14.12 million facility to support the Federal Republic of Nigeria’s membership in the African Trade Insurance Agency (ATI). This is a critical and mandatory step to enable ATI commence its operations in Nigeria. Nigeria, as Africa’s largest economy, joins 14 other African countries that have already signed up to ATI membership.

Once membership formalities in ATI are finalized, Nigeria could benefit from gross political and commercial risk insurance cover on total investments and trade amounting to over US$ 5 billion by 2020. The catalytic effect of using limited financial resources in this way is undoubtedly massive.

The approved facility complements ongoing and planned interventions geared at building institutional capacity and improving the resilience of the Nigerian economy. Joining ATI will enable Nigeria to leverage its position to mobilize additional resources to finance trade, especially importation of essential goods such as medicines and communications equipment, to rehabilitate basic infrastructure and strengthen the country’s productive sector.

ATI’s mandate is to provide medium to long term credit and political risk insurance, as well as other risk mitigation products to its member countries and related public and private sector actors.

These products directly encourage and facilitate foreign direct investment as well as local private sector investment in regional member countries and intra- and extra-African trade. ATI catalyzes private sector investments in infrastructure projects, thereby promoting economic integration of participating countries into regional markets.

This financing aligns with four of the Bank’s High 5 priorities, namely:  Light Up and Power Africa, Industrialize Africa, Feed Africa and Integrate Africa. As a trade finance facilitation initiative, this financing will support operations that are crosscutting and multi-sectoral in nature and will have an impact on agribusiness, infrastructure development, electricity generation, telecommunications and manufacturing.

According to the Director of the Financial Sector Department, Stefan Nalletamby, “The Bank seeks to achieve its ambitious development mandate by working with and through other strategic partners, and where possible, by supporting the development of strong and viable African institutions such as ATI. This financing scales up the work of ATI by supporting the beneficiary RMCs to become members.”

ATI (http://www.ATI-aca.org) is a pan-African institution that provides political risk insurance to companies, investors, and lenders interested in doing business in Africa. Formed in 2001 under the leadership of COMESA, with funding and technical support from the World Bank and subsequently the African Development Bank, ATI has grown into a major global player in the export credit agency landscape, and it has recorded significant impact in its existing member countries. Within primary sectors such as energy, infrastructure (which includes road and construction and rehabilitation, the insurance industry and telecommunications).  ATI has supported over US$ 22.96 billion worth of trade and investment in its RMCs. 

African Trade Insurance Agency (ATI) to pay first dividends to African member governments & other shareholders

ATI has earmarked an initial USD2.5 million in payments to its shareholders which include 14 African member governments

In a much anticipated announcement, the African Trade Insurance Agency (ATI) (www.ATI-ACA.org), declared that its General Assembly had approved the first ever payments to shareholders. The announcement comes on the heels of ATI’s Annual General Meeting held in Abidjan, where the company also announced its record-breaking 2017 financial results for the sixth consecutive year.

ATI has earmarked an initial USD2.5 million in payments to its shareholders which include 14 African member governments.

The company’s CEO, George Otieno noted “We have been planning for this moment for several years and I am happy to finally announce that we are ready to give something back to our shareholders. This signals our intention to continue showing value to our member governments and shareholders, while providing non-member countries and institutional investors an incentive to join.”

In 2017, ATI recorded gross exposures of USD2.4 billion and, in the same period, the company covered investment and trade activities across the continent valued at USD10 billion. ATI also posted a USD10 million profit representing a 55% increase over 2016.

ATI owes its strong results in part to growing demand from investors and African governments for their products as the continent continues to position itself as an attractive destination for investors. Africa’s drive to increase trade within its borders is also fuelling ATI’s success.

The African multilateral insurer also announced the Government of India’s USD10 million shareholding, which will be represented by ECGC, India’s export credit agency.

ATI’s KEY 2017 RESULTS

Volume of Business Supported Since Inception: USD35 billion (+40%)

Combined Ratio: 62% (+11pps on a comparable basis)

Insured Trade & Investments (Gross Exposures): USD2.4 billion (+23%)

Return on Capital: 4.6% (+1.5pps on a comparable basis)

Gross Written Premiums: USD44.8 million (+52%)

Shareholders’ Equity: USD242.2 million (+16%)

Net Earned Premium s: USD14.0 million (+9%)

Rating (S&P): *A/stable

Profit: USD9.9 million (+55% on a comparable basis)

* S&P revised its outlook from “negative” to “stable” on 16 March, 2018. ATI is currently rated A/Stable.

Germany backs renewable energy projects in Africa with the launch of RLSF – an innovative liquidity facility managed by ATI

KfW (www.KfW-entwicklungsbank.de), the German Development Bank, and the African Trade Insurance Agency (ATI) (www.ATI-ACA.org) announced, on the side lines of the annual Africa Investment Exchange: Power and Renewables Meeting, a new instrument to support renewable energy projects in sub-Saharan Africa that targets small- and mid-scale (up to 50 MW) green power renewable energy projects.

The facility is designed to provide a viable solution to one of the biggest challenges facing independent power producers (IPPs) operating in Africa, specifically the requirement to provide project lenders with a liquidity guarantee. The German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) through KfW will provide funding of up to 32.9 million EUR to the facility, which aims to enable small-and mid-scale renewable energy projects in Africa to reach financial close by addressing liquidity requirements that lenders frequently require in order to fund such projects.

The launch of the new facility is happening at an opportune moment when emerging markets are seeing record investments in the renewable energy sector. The International Energy Agency (IEA) expects sub-Saharan Africa’s renewables capacity to grow by 73% (24.4GW) over the period 2017-22. In addition, small-scale projects are seen as a potential solution to Africa’s energy deficit because they are easier to implement and can target energy requirements at source, but these projects find it difficult to access the type of guarantees needed to reach financial closure. The facility will kick in by providing immediate liquidity to keep the IPP afloat during periods of payment delays that are beyond the grace period provided in the power purchase agreement.

Günther Nooke, Personal Representative of the German Chancellor for Africa, BMZ, said “The Regional Liquidity Support Facility will address a key challenge in renewable energy project finance and de-risk private sector investments. We are pleased to provide the funding to this innovative instrument underlining Germany’s commitment to the objectives of the African Renewable Energy Initiative (AREI).”

The RLSF is designed to help independent power producers (IPPs) developing renewable energy projects in Africa to obtain the liquidity they need in the event that their off-taker (frequently a state owned entity) delays payment. The facility will provide immediate cash collateral supported by guarantees to a commercial bank that will in turn open a standby letter of credit to the benefit of the IPP. The amount provided will enable the IPP to operate and service the debt for up to 6 months. Furthermore, unlike most IPP letters of credit (which tend to be 12 month tenors) the facility is designed to be in place for multiple years.

Dr. Thomas Duve, KfW Director Southern Africa and Regional Funds, noted “We highly appreciate the opportunity to partner with ATI on this innovative instrument. The RLSF is a strongly market-driven concept, emphasizing KfW’s strategy to support and leverage the resources of local partners and the private sector.”

The facility, in combination with ATI’s traditional suite of political and trade credit risk insurance products (in particular ATI’s arbitration award default cover), means that ATI is able to cover the full range of political and financial risks facing investors on such projects.

Speaking at the launch, John Lentaigne, ATI’s Chief Underwriting Officer commented “We are delighted to be working with the German government, represented by KfW, on an initiative that directly targets one of the main bottlenecks preventing green power projects from being financed in Africa.”

Jef Vincent, Senior Advisor to ATI, who has overall responsibility for the initial implementation of the facility, added “Unlike some of the alternative solutions to the liquidity issue, ATI’s guarantee (as provided via the RLSF) will not require a counter-guarantee from the relevant Ministry of Finance, and as such we are confident this will be a very useful tool for those projects that we expect to support.”