Africa’s infrastructure deficit reaches $90B: CIB chairman

CAIRO – 8 December 2017: Africa is suffering from a deficit in infrastructure projects that value up to $90 billion, chairman of the Commercial International Bank (CIB) Hisham Ezz Al-Arab during his speech at Africa 2017 Forum.

At a session tackling the projections of investors in 2018 with regards to foreign direct investments, Ezz Al-Arab said that this deficit should be converted into project opportunities which private sector companies can work on.

“We should learn from the experiences of other countries such as China and Japan, that’s why we need to achieve financial inclusion in Africa where commercial transactions surpass $10 billion,” Ezz Al-Arab added.

Speakers of the session also include Miguel Azevedo, head of investment banking for Middle East and Africa at Citi Group and Jim Ovia, founder and managing director of Zenith Bank in Nigeria.