Physical Trade Infrastructure - European Commission

The EU-Africa Infrastructure Trust Fund (€393 million) was set up by the European Commission (€309 million from the European Commission and €84 million from EU Member States) as a regional loan grant blending instrument of the EU-Africa Partnership on Infrastructure. It was aimed to support the implementation of this partnership.

As of October 2012, 68 grant operations have been approved by the Executive Committee of the Trust Fund, amounting to grant contributions of about €348 million which have the potential to generate up to 12 times more in total investments. On the projects currently in investment phase, approximately €1.7 billion in EU-loans and about €2.2 billion in additional financing could be mobilised to finance projects costing about €4.3 billion. The Commission plans additional contributions of €329 million to the Trust Fund in support of the UN secretary general’s “Sustainable Energy for All initiative” (SE4All). The target infrastructure sectors are energy, water, transport and telecommunications. Projects are identified jointly by the beneficiary coun­try, the EU delegation and the project financier(s). In this context, the Trust Fund also actively supports the “Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa” (PIDA), which has identified priority infrastructure needs on the African continent until 2040. The Trust Fund benefits cross-border and regional infrastructure projects in sub-Saharan Africa and is about to be opened for national projects in the context of SE4All.