Sustainable Investing with the Private Infrastructure Development Group

 

 

Podcast host Desné Masie speaks to group publisher, Omar Ben Yedder back from his travels on the African continent and beyond. Omar has over the past month been to several high level conference and working groups, including the 2020 World Economic Forum at Davos in Switzerland, the 33rd AU Summit in Addis Ababa and the Intra-African Trade Fair pre-meetings in Kigali. We discuss whether Davos is still fit for purpose and the AU’s plans for increasing peace and security in Africa through the Silencing the Guns initiative, focused on the Sahel and West Africa.

 

Our special guest is Philippe Valahu, the CEO of the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG), an innovative infrastructure development and finance organisation delivering pioneering infrastructure in the poorest and most fragile countries in Africa and Asia. Philippe talks us through the pioneering work of the PIDG in co-ordinating public-private partnerships to derisk transactions and encourage private capital to participate in infrastructure projects in these regions, and bringing energy to countries where there is great need. We also talk about the pathfinding Acorn affordable housing green bond launched with PIDG company GuarantCo in Nairobi recently with the London Stock Exchange.