The investment professional has managed international groups’ green finance strategies. The fund he recently launched aims to raise US$200 million to finance “infrastructure projects in the renewable energy, health, food and water scarcity, sustainable cities and green transportation sectors in Africa.”

Hussein Sefian, a former investment and corporate banker at BNP Paribas, recently launched his investment fund called Acre Export Finance Fund 1. The fund targets US$200 million to fund climate-friendly projects.

The investment vehicle is close to securing a US$40 million financing from the European Investment Bank (EIB).

In a summary sheet published on its website, the EIB explains that the “Fund will finance infrastructure projects in the renewable energy, health, food and water scarcity, sustainable cities and green transportation sectors in Africa. It will provide unsecured commercial loans to complement long-term loans provided by international banks that are guaranteed by Export Credit Agencies to finance sustainable greenfield infrastructure projects.” 

Hussein Sefian’s experience will likely contribute to attracting additional investors for the fund that targets the whole of Africa. In 2018, when he left BNP Paribas where he used to devise sustainable investment strategies, the French group was the financial institution with the highest climate financing volume worldwide. His strategy is to offer more margin to clients (governments and businesses) “to achieve risk-adjusted market-rate returns while mobilizing up to US$5.6 in private sector capital for each dollar invested by the fund.”

The initiative is in line with the expectations of a continent struggling to mobilize resources for its sustainable development goals and adapt to the foreseeable consequences of climate change and environmental degradation. Access to international capital markets remains very expensive for African countries. Yet, they need special financing approaches to repair the damages caused to nature, mostly by advanced economies.