Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund and Africa
Investment SkyTrain Consortium Holdings on Monday signed a concession agreement
with the government of Ghana towards the development of a world-class mass transport
system in the city of Accra.
The Accra SkyTrain system, valued at about
$3-billion, will be the first of its kind in Africa.
The SkyTrain is an elevated air-propelled light
rail system, using steel wheels and rails on an elevated runway for low drag
and energy optimisation.
South Africa-based Africa Investment SkyTrain
Consortium Holdings and Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund are sponsors of
the project, for which a feasibility study was recently completed.
The concession agreement marked the next step
towards completing a bankable feasibility
study.
The African Investment SkyTrain Consortium
comprises construction engineering company Wilson Bayly Holmes Ovcon; project
development company Bunengi Group; and Ai Capital, the investment and financing
arm of the Ai Group, an influential international investment banking advisory
group.
During a concession signing ceremony held on the
sidelines of the 2019 Africa Investment Forum, in Sandton, on Monday, Ghana
Investment Promotion Centre CEO Yofi
Grant said he was confident that the project would reach financial
close by this time next year to allow for the start of construction soon after.
He said various parties had indicated their
interest in funding the project through a combination of debt and equity and
that the sponsors were seeking additional expressions of interest from
potential funders for debt and equity.
The project will create 5 000 jobs during the
construction phase, but will create double as many jobs considering the
system’s multiplier effects and property growth around the transport system,
explained Solomon Asamoah,
of Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund.
He noted that the SkyTrain would bypass existing
infrastructure on the ground, making it cheaper and easier to deploy, while
operating in an environment-friendly manner. Asamoah added that the
modular SkyTrain model could be replicated in other Ghanaian cities and other
African cities.
African Development Bank president Akinwumi Adesina said that this was Africa-to-Africa investment. “We want our cities to be modern, our transport to be green and this is what this project will do.”http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/concession-agreement-signed-for-3bn-accra-skytrain-2019-11-11
