Countries face high costs in managing their foreign liabilities. Initiatives to mitigate the situation, such as the new continental rating agency, have recently emerged. External debt servicing will cost African countries US$89 billion in 2025, according to estimates by the G20. South Africa, which holds the presidency of the Group this year, established a committee of experts in early March...
The European Investment Bank Complaints Mechanism has recommended that the EIB reconsider withholding key information about the terms of an agreement to license GEMs data to a private company. The 2019 licensing agreement with ILX, a Dutch investment company, was unusual as the only instance in which the EIB granted a private company access to the Global Emerging Markets (GEMs) Risk...
Dr. Hubert Danso, Chairman, Africa investor (Ai) Group Every year of delayed green technology deployment costs the world an estimated $1.6 trillion in climate damages and lost opportunities—a stark reminder of the urgency to act. The challenge of achieving net-zero targets amidst systemic climate finance gaps is one of the defining crises of our time. Green technologies hold the key to unlocking...
Poor data and small capital markets make it hard to gauge risks and returns The concept of risk is completely invented to ensure that investment doesn’t come to Africa,” Gagan Gupta told an audience of investors and entrepreneurs earlier this year, to resounding applause. Mr Gupta, whose firm works on logistics and utilities across Africa, is optimistic about the continent and scathing...
As officials from around the world strive this week to reach a deal on funding for poorer countries to tackle climate change, investment manager Rob Drijkoningen is the sort of person they're hoping will help get them there. Drijkoningen is head of emerging market debt at U.S. asset manager Neuberger Berman, which holds $27 billion in sovereign and corporate debt from...
The Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI) Africa Council has unveiled a new initiative aimed at making natural assets a core component of national balance sheets. The Natural Capital on African Governments’ Balance Sheets initiative is an institutional investor-public partnership led by the SMI Africa Council, which brings together institutional, technology and legal partners such as the African Union Commission, Africa Investor Group,...
The impacts of climate change have been on stark display this year, from severe flooding in Brazil and East Africa to droughts in Mexico and Europe and wildfires in Canada. Record-breaking heat has claimed lives around the world. These disasters are evidence that the world has not yet done nearly...
The Global Emerging Markets Risk Database (GEMs) Consortium Oct. 15 reported on country-by-country loan default and recovery rates for the first time, but the Consortium has still not met the key transparency demand: making the database accessible. The new data was called insufficient by critics in the private and nonprofit sector who say that issuance of more detailed information is necessary...
Partially lifting the lid on a “treasure trove” of international economic data has not dampened interest in getting a closer look inside, but the crystal ball for the future is hazy. The valued data in question is known by the acronym GEMs. There’s information from 26 development finance institutions covering 20,000 contracts over 30 years. GEMs is run by a consortium...
