"Countries like Ethiopia and Angola, for example, are undergoing transformations that are creating many financing needs in various areas and opportunities to allocate capital", said Michael Mutinga in an interview with the financial information agency in Nairoibi, the capital of Kenya, in which he stressed that "it is an exciting time to be on this continent".
Last year, sub-Saharan African countries issued debt worth about 30 billion dollars, roughly the same as in 2018.
Citigroup, based in New York, is present in 16 African countries, and intends to deepen its presence in infrastructure projects, fulfilling needs that the African Development Bank estimates are about 100 billion dollars a year.
Among the countries that have already announced that they will issue debt this year are Nigeria, the continent's largest economy, and Angola, in addition to Ghana, Benin and Gabon.
"We are looking at a set of mandates from various countries at the moment", said Mutiga in the interview, refusing to be more specific.
Citigroup has already helped raise nearly 30 billion dollars in financing for sub-Saharan African countries in the public debt issuance market and in loans, including in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Zambia, Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire.
The African market, he recalled, developed "at an incredible speed, since 15 years ago, for example, when talking about financing of 10 or 20 million, this was seen as a very big transaction, but today the scale of opportunities and the size of the companies means that we’re seeing a lot of financing for companies that are starting to exceed 1 billion dollars".
