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| Kola Aluko, Ozwald Boateng and Jamie Foxx At NASDAQ Credit: NASDAQ |
Made In Africa Foundation (MIAF), a UK non-profit organization founded by Kola Aluko and Ozwald Boateng has formed a joint venture, Africa50, with the African Development Bank (AfDB).
Africa50, a $500 million Pan-African infrastructure fund, will help to facilitate development in Africa by funding large-ticket infrastructure projects across sub-Saharan Africa.
MIAF was born when internationally renowned Ghanaian-born designer Ozwald Boateng and leading Nigerian entrepreneur, Kola Aluko of Atlantic Energy realized that a few hundred million dollars of investment could change the course of economic development for the whole of Africa.
At the official launch on Wednesday, at the NASDAQ in New York, Oscar-winning actor and musician Jamie Foxx joined the two African businessmen where they rang the opening bell.
Africa50 aims to raise the $500million by the first half of 2014, having raised $250 million so far. Capri Global Capital, a US-based investment advisory founded by African-American fund manager Quintin E. Primo III, will work with the AfDB and MIAF in raising the additional capital. The aim is to attract investments from development finance institutions, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and governments to the fund.
Kola Aluko had earlier said, when asked why he created Maide-In-Africa Foundation, “What Africa needed was not charity in terms of building schools or hospitals, which sometimes are not sustainable.
“These projects happen and then they are left in incapable hands and they are not commercially driven. As a consequence, most of them will go on for as long as the money has been given lasts and beyond that they slowly dilapidate and slowly die.”
Mr. Boateng adds compelling perspective to the effort, noting that “Africa has reached a moment in time where Africans on the continent, and in the wider diaspora, are looking to effect a positive and permanent transformation of their continent that will, in turn, transform the growth potential of earth as a whole. With only 10 percent of Africa’s trade done between countries on the continent, compared to 60 to 70 percent in Europe and elsewhere, infrastructure—from railways that connect us and lights in the dark to clean water and homes worthy of the name—will enable Africa to achieve its full growth potential.”
