A look back at the success of the program’s first cohort

The first cohort of ten senior public officials from five partner countries (Ethiopia, Gabon, Namibia, Cameroon, and Senegal) and various administrations and profiles (PPP authorities, economy and finance, public works, transport, electricity) benefited with great satisfaction and success from the AIFP program in France from October 6 to December 10, 2020.

They followed a training program comprising four components: academic (2 weeks), workshops / practice (2 weeks), immersion, and completed the preparation for the first and second level of the APMG PPP Certification with success. The “Fellows” of this 2020 class, the first “alumni / laureates” of the AIFP will be the initiators of a pan-African network of experienced PPP practitioners who will share their knowledge and experience with their colleagues on the one hand and their successors in the program on the other hand.

Academic Program

The Fellows have been able to learn and widely exchange experiences in a stimulating and pleasant environment with the more than thirty masterclasses provided by practitioners from various backgrounds:

• three public administrations,
• a bilateral public development agency,
• an association of international infrastructures’ investors,
• two major banks,
• two well-known investment funds,
• four top consulting companies,
• two engineering firms,
• six famous law firms,
• and four projects developers/concessionaires.

Workshops

The Fellows benefited from detailed A to Z projects management presentations. They actively participated in a dozen workshops run by multilateral and bilateral development organizations and institutions, commercial banks, investment funds, developer/concessionaires, and law firms.

VIP Side Events

During their stay, the Fellows had the great opportunity to exchange views with a Minister, an ex-Prime Minister, and the Special Adviser for African affairs to the French President, among others.

Reminder

The AIFP was publicly launched in July 2018 in the presence of the French Minister M. Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, French business leaders and African Ambassadors. The AIFP Public Utility Foundation was formed in August 2019 to house the program.

It is an initiative that aims to bring together public and private actors, including development banks and academia, to offer a high-level training program for African public officials in the infrastructure sector. It is the first pan-African training program that offers a unique approach focused on practical knowledge and the sharing of expertise and cooperation between the private and public sectors for infrastructure projects with tangible social and economic impact in the world within communities.