Incoming BRICS member Saudi Arabia is set to invest SR2 billion ($533 million) in African development projects, Arab News reported.
The Kingdom’s Finance Minister, Mohammed Al-Jadaan, made the announcement at the Saudi-Arab-African Economic Conference in Riyadh. The minister said the deals would be reached through the Kingdom’s Fund for Development.
The Saudi Fund for Development concluded developmental loan agreements with Guinea, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, and Niger, for investments in healthcare, education, roads and other sectors.
More details on the investments are available here.
Trade between the Kingdom and Africa has grown steadily in recent years, the Saudi Press Agency reports. Non-oil exports to Africa have risen by 5.96 percent annually from 2018 to 2022, reaching SR31.94 billion.
Saudi Minister of Investment, Khalid Al-Falih, told the conference that the Kingdom’s Public Investment Fund has its sights set on investments in Africa.
“PIF is looking at Africa with great interest and I believe they will be in due course making some game-changing announcements about their intent to invest in Africa,” he said.
He said a joint venture would invest in the critical minerals in Africa.
Al-Falih said: “There is already $75 billion of Saudi investment deployed in Africa. It’s a good number, but I think we’re only scratching the surface given the great potential that we’ve talked about today.”
A number of memorandums of understanding were signed, including with Nigeria, Senegal, fellow BRICS members Ethiopia and Egypt, Chad, and Gambia. The memorandums are related to the oil and gas sector, energy, finance and tax regulations.
Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia and Egypt are due to join BRICS in 2024, along with three other new members: Argentina, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. The announcement was made in August at a historic summit in Johannesburg.
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