Sojitz Corporation and the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), an international financial institution that supports African development projects, have reached an agreement and signed a memorandum to collaborate in infrastructure and resource development works in the Sub-Saharan region of Africa.

The AFC is an international financial institution launched in 2007 on the initiative of Nigeria. The current participating members include Nigeria, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Gambia, Liberia and Guinea-Conakry. While promoting African development projects, the AFC advances project structuring, consulting, loans and investment, and acts as a bridge between African and overseas companies. The AFC track record to date includes equity investment in independent power producers (IPP) in Ghana, and financing for a submarine cable works to link Africa and Europe.

Sojitz and the AFC consider their target countries to be the 10 African states of Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, Angola, Tanzania, Uganda, Mozambique, Botswana, Namibia and the Republic of South Africa. The actual collaborative undertakings, meanwhile, are envisaged as the three sectors of power generation projects, heavy industry and oil and gas development. Mobilizing their respective know-how and networks, Sojitz and AFC plan to use project information exchanges and proposals to generate new business and promote works that contribute to the advance of industrial endeavors in Africa.

Sojitz perceives Africa to be an important region, and has dispatched dedicated personnel to the continent to engage in market development. Working through its new strategic alliance with AFC, Sojitz hopes to discover and advance infrastructure works such as IPP enterprises and plant construction and promising projects including resource development to effectively expand the sphere of its business within Africa.

Overview of Africa Finance Corporation

Established	2007
Representative	Adebayo Ogunlesi, Chairman
Capitalization	US$1.1 billion
Address	3a Osborne Road, Ikoyi Lagos, Nigeria
Business Activities	Loans and investment in infrastructure works and consulting to support projects in Africa.