Over $1 trillion in assets managed by American investors are in South Africa looking for investment opportunities.
The US Agency for International Development and Prosper Africa are facilitating the visit, the U.S. government’s initiative to increase trade and investment between African nations and America, started Tuesday and will coincide with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip. Mr. Blinken arrives in the country Sunday — his second official trip to Africa. He will also visit the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda.
Pension funds, financial institutions, and asset managers, including Bank of New York Mellon Corp, made up the delegation., the $754 million Kansas City (Mo.) Public School Retirement System and the $8.4 billion New York City Board of Education Retirement System will meet with fund managers and discuss blended finance opportunities for South Africa’s transition to renewable energy and women’s economic empowerment, a statement from Prosper Africa and USAID said.
According to a report released in May, South Africa, the world’s 13th-largest source of greenhouse gases, will need to spend $250 billion over the next three decades to fund the closure of coal-fired plants and the development of replacement green energy such as wind and solar. The world’s richest nations at COP26 in Glasgow in November pledged just $8.5 billion in climate grants and concessional loans to the nation.
“There are insufficient public resources in donor budgets and in local budgets, for example, in South Africa, to address the climate crisis.” Cameron Khosrowshahi, senior investment adviser for Prosper Africa, said in an interview Thursday. “There’s going to need to be a scaling up of private capital alongside public capital in order to meet the challenge. And that’s part of the reason why we’re here.”
The United States is attempting to strengthen ties with Africa in order to counter China’s influence as the continent’s largest trading partner and bilateral creditor. Mr. Blinken will be hosted by South Africa’s Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Naledi Pandor and will also engage on a strategic dialog.
In April, US investors also visited Senegal and Kenya.
