The International Finance Corporation (IFC), which is also a member of the World Bank, announced a massive investment of $10.4 billion in the Middle East and Africa (MENA) in the fiscal year 2021,according to media reports.
The financial help will help thousands of small businesses get access to finance, connect with people and businesses, access to digital infrastructure, trade and services, and help to meet critical healthcare needs while battling the Covid-19 pandemic as well.
IFC’s financing included $2.9 billion in short-term finance and $4.2 billion in mobilization. For low income, fragile, and vulnerable states, IFC has allocated 70 percent of IFC’s own account financing. IFC committed $2.7 billion under the Global Trade Finance Programme (GTFP) to support trade flows between countries and help connect small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) with the Middle East and Africa.
IFC also invested $1.6 billion to the Middle East and Africa, allocating $732 million to the healthcare sector of sub-Saharan Africa from its own Global Health Facility. These funds will help support the expansion of diagnostic and laboratory testing, increased access to critical medical care, along with numerous important partnerships that will lend support to the vaccine manufacture in the region.
In April, the IFC announced the Africa Key Medical Facility that had partners like Philips, Co-operative Bank of Kenya, GE Healthcare and NSIA with the aim to improve the medical equipment financing across Africa. IFC also worked across multiple other countries, to improve the infrastructure of the MEA region. IFC also invested $26 million in Africa to support financial technology development, along with projects aimed at providing