Japan promotes ‘impact investing’ in ongoing TICAD African development conference in Japan; Tinubu presence marks Nigeria’s debut

A three-day Japan-led global conference on African development- Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) is ongoing in Yokohama, near Tokyo.

African leaders and other delegates are attending the International Summit which commences Wednesday and focused on African Development.

Prime Minister Ishiba opened the event aimed at boosting Japan’s ties with African countries by a keynote speech. He said, “It will be an era in which solutions from Africa save the international community, including Japan. We’d like to work together to create innovative solutions to the challenges facing Africa and the world.”

And unlike many donor-led forums, TICAD promotes the twin principles of African ownership — the idea that Africa should lead its own development path — and international partnership, where global partners support those efforts reverberated in the Prime Ministers speech.

Ishiba proposed a plan in which Japan would help train personnel in African countries in AI and other fields.

Other potential investment on the table are large-scale wind power generation that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and financing a start-up that operates healthcare facilities to expand the provision of medical care services.

The event also accommodates discussions on peace and stability, focusing on the promotion of the rule of law and conflict avoidance.

Ishiba is also scheduled to hold separate talks with each of the leaders from more than 30 nations.

An announcement of 1.5 billion dollars for “impact investing,” to help African nations reduce greenhouse gas emissions and others is expected to be made by the Japanese government at the Yokohama, Tokyo International Conference meeting on African Development.

“Impact investing” backed by 1.5 billion dollars with cooperation from JICA, the Japan International Cooperation Agency and private financial institutions is a strategy that aims to bring about positive changes in resolving social issues while generating financial returns.

Japan’s proposal of ‘impact investing’’ entails offering transparent development projects to help African nations achieve United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

And according to Japanese foreign ministry officials “impact investing” has the potential to achieve two goals at once: solving issues facing African nations, and enabling Japanese companies to make profits.

A statement called the Yokohama declaration will be adopted on Friday, the final day of the conference.

But despite its size and influence on the continent, Nigeria is only now formally participating in TICAD. President Bola Tinubu arrived in Tokyo this week to attend TICAD 9 in Yokohama, making it Nigeria’s debut appearance at the summit. For Africa’s fourth largest economy, this is more than a symbolic step.

Yusuf Tuggar Nigeria’s Foreign affairs minister explained that Nigeria intends to leverage TICAD to strengthen economic ties with Japan, expand trade beyond the current $1 billion level, and draw lessons from Japan’s own growth story.

“Nigeria is leveraging, first and foremost, on this ticket to strengthen its relationship with Japan and also with other African countries, so that it leads the way in providing that restructuring of the global financial architecture, so that the whole continent would benefit so that Africa would benefit.”