Nairobi: Japan will invest $30 billion in boosting growth in African economies and improving the continent’s infrastructure over the next three years, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said.
The Asian economy’s future investment in the continent of 1.2 billion people shows it has “faith in Africa’s future,” Abe told African leaders gathered in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, for the sixth Tokyo International International Conference on African Development.
Thirty-four leaders from across the 54-nation continent, including those from South Africa, Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Uganda, are attending the high-level gathering being held outside Japan for the first time. At the previous meeting in 2013, Japan promised $32 billion for Africa.
In pledging more support, Japan is competing for influence in the continent with the US, China and former European colonial powers such as Britain and France.
China, whose investments in sub-Saharan nations have increased 40-fold since 2003, pledged $60 billion for the continent at a similar summit by President Xi Pinping in South Africa last year. The money was to be spent on interest-free loans, preferential financing and funding to support development. The US, on the hand, said it would give $14 billion at the US-Africa Leaders Summit in 2014.
About $10 billion of Japan’s planned investment is earmarked for electricity-generation projects and upgrading urban transport systems and ports, Abe said. The nation will work with the African Development Bank to boost private sector investment on the continent struggling with intermittent power outages, dilapidated infrastructure, poor sanitation and grinding poverty.
Japan, which invested $47 billion on the continent over the past 23 years, wants to connect Africa and Asia through sea lanes, Abe said.
“Let us make this stretch that is from Asia to Africa a main artery for growth and prosperity. Let us advance together, Africa and Japan, sharing a common vision,” Abe said.
