A group of British risks and financial experts, including John Davie, former of Head United Kingdom Government Advisory Group on Public Private Partnership (PPP) is considering the establishment of African Infrastructure Medicines Fund, using the Public Private Partnership platform.
The African Infrastructure Medicines portfolio, which according to one of the initiators, John Davie would be a replica of European Medicines Agency funded by European Union (EU), will source local and foreign investors that may include African Development Bank (AfDB) as part of project anchors.
Speaking exclusively with BusinessDay after he had delivered a lecture on “Mastering Public Private Partnership” organised for Civil servants in Abeokuta, John Davie disclosed that the African Infrastructure Medicines Fund would bring benefits in terms of protection and promotion of public and animal health as well as raising profit for investors.
He said, “I am working with some of my colleagues right now to see if we can set up an African Infrastructure Medicines Fund. You know medicine is a very different kind of finance but it might bridge gap between equity and debts if we can create right buy out later on. We will start working with some capital like European Medicines Fund for Central European.”
When asked about the location of the project and the time frame for which the project will take before completion, the Altra Capital Chairman disclosed that the Medicines Fund project would only cover Sub-Sahara Africa, excluding North African countries like Egypt, Morocco, and Libya among others, adding that the pilot project will start from Nigeria and Ghana.
“We are thinking of Africa, it may take one or two years before we set it up, we have to set up prospectus, we have to get investors; we will be looking for some serious anchors may be African Development Bank (AfDB) or somebody like that would probably buy into it because it’s going to be pure facts and it will be a huge difference.
“It will be Sub-Saharan Africa, it won’t be Egypt, and Libya…You have to also look at repayment profile, risks profile of the country. So Nigeria, Ghana will be there, Cameroon will be lovely but I suspect not, you have to look sensibly at this thing because it involves other people’s money not our own money if we have to make profit for them then we have to do it sensibly”, he concluded.
He however declared that the Medicines Fund project, having required huge capital and specialized experts, called for effective planning and execution, saying: “the project has very experienced American bankers behind it”.
