ATI's Chief Underwriting Officer Mr John Lentaigne said in a statement that, "Most international financiers and lenders simply cannot invest in most African countries due to their sub-investment grade ratings without an institution like ATI standing behind these transactions,"

 

The conference brings together key stakeholders from the public and private sectors with the objective of finding solutions to the country's current energy challenges.

 

He added, "If ATI is not present, the cost of borrowing would make it impossible for the government to borrow.

 

With ATI backing, the government is therefore able to borrow at more reasonable rates, attract more investments into the sector and secure new projects that will ultimately improve infrastructure and add to the electricity capacity," One of the major challenges is that Tanzania needs a large amount of investments to upgrade their current infrastructure, add more energy capacity to the grid and to help the utility clear its existing debt.

 

The financial reputation of the utility plays an important role in Tanzania's ability to attract new projects and investments. This is where ATI can provide a solution.

 

ATI's Underwriting Representative in Tanzania, Ms Tusekile Kibonde said, "This Forum gives us a chance to remind the government that we are here and that they should be maximizing their investment in us by using our products and services to help provide a solution to Tanzania's current energy deficit," Tanzania is a founding shareholder in ATI, with a 17 million US dollars (about 37bn/-) investment.

 

The Pan African institution was founded in 2001 by COMESA countries with the support of the World Bank and later the African Development Bank to protect investments of potential investors by offering political risk and investment cover and a range of other solutions.

 

ATI is a highly respected and an investment grade rated institution with an 'A' rating from S&P and capitalisation of nearly 200 million US dollars (about 435bn/-).

 

This makes ATI a very strong partner for the government because the institution is able to also help to lower the cost of borrowing for the government based on its financial reputation strength in the international financial market.

 

Since inception, ATI has facilitated a total of 1 billion US dollars (2tri/-) worth of investments and trade into many sectors in Tanzania and the institution's current pipeline could potentially double this amount of FDI coming into Tanzania over the next few years alone.

Source : allafrica.com