MIGA EVP & CEO Keiko Honda in South Africa and Namibia to Support Private Sector Investment

WASHINGTON DC, August 20, 2018— Keiko Honda, Executive Vice President and CEO of the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) - the political risk insurance arm of the World Bank Group – will be in South Africa and Namibia from August 22-23 to meet with private sector investors and government officials.

While there, Honda will assess progress on MIGA-backed projects – including the opening of the Ejuva One and Two solar plants in Namibia, and explore opportunities for supporting further private sector activity.

“We are proud to be supporting projects in South Africa and Namibia that focus on high-priority areas such as clean energy, infrastructure and agriculture, and stand ready to help meet the ambitions of the two nations,” Honda said.

MIGA currently supports eight projects in South Africa and two in Namibia, amounting to some $1.6 billion in political risk insurance and credit enhancement. MIGA's gross exposure in Sub-Saharan Africa as a whole is $5.4 billion.

Recent projects MIGA has supported in South Africa include three wind power farms to be built and run by Lekela Power in Khobab, Loeriesfontein, and Noupoort. Once operational, these farms will have a generation capacity of 360 MW. MIGA has also recently supported first-time investments by CIGenCo SA in two solar power plants in neighboring Namibia.

As a member of the World Bank Group, MIGA is focused on development impact by helping mobilize private capital. Clients with whom MIGA works in both countries are expected to provide over 110 thousand people with access to power, generate $784 million annually in government revenues, provide $1.6 billion in loans per annum, and avoid 2.2 million metric tons of greenhouse gases.

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MIGA was created in 1988 as a member of the World Bank Group to promote foreign direct investment in emerging economies by helping mitigate the risks of restrictions on currency conversion and transfer, breach of contract by governments, expropriation, and war & civil disturbance; and offering credit enhancement to private investors and lenders.

This year marks MIGA's 30th Anniversary. Over the last three decades, MIGA has directly supported almost $50 billion in investments for over 845 projects in 111 developing countries.

Contacts:

In Washington: Vamsee Krishna Kanchi, (202) 458-9771, vkanchi@worldbank.org

For more information, please visit: http://www.miga.org

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