SAFE Report Review
Analysed By Tshepo Magagane
African Capital Pools (no mention in this SAFE report – I should have accosted them in Brussels in Dec like I just did this week in East Africa when I bumped into the AfDB guys) – it is not the 5% of capital I normally quote – it is actually worse [Only 2.8% of global investment in critical mineral processing reached Africa between 2019 and 2023]
This SAFE report reinforces why it is so important to unlock these capital pools for Africa – barely any mention of Africa.
I dont blame Appian and Vision for having an Americas focus BUT who is going to focus on Africa if not us!
As I have also said, you cant talk ESG when you have not been supporting the project from when it was at geophysics stage – making sure that even the local community engagement before clearing that area to do the initial pitting / trenching is done to international standards…hence, the capital needs to be already supporting that early stage work programme!
In this report even at a global level, there is no mention of the real issue i.e. HOW WERE CURRENT PRODUCING PROJECTS BROUGHT ONLINE?
It was through the capital that sat in Merchant Banks – for us alone, we had a USD10bn Strategic Equities book – I would be having chats with anyone with a license with the view of extending that COF, so that their ListCo could raise that initial USD10m, then taking that equity stake through a structured note, then saying to them “my traders want some of the offtake, so take this cash to finish the PFS, then going I will be anchoring your BFS, then giving them the PF…then patiently supporting the construction / commissioning eg do you know how patient we were when Khoemacau hit those issues – about 18mths working with them!
That capital is not there anymore – we could not do it due to B III – nothing has plugged that gap! Same for all other competitors.
Key that we focus on this real key issue because if you dont sort it out, you honestly can forget about the TRANSITION!
PS: I am passionate about this not because one read an article but because it is my lived daily reality – I see the consequences of these challenges every day…we dont sort this out, we cannot talk about Africa’s development (perniciously, others will continue to find ways to extract the wealth out of the countries across the continent)…when you do Mine Development RIGHT, you can anchor it to be the panopticon of Economic Development!
