Bertrand de Dianous: CITYRIZ, it's 100 million € of loans in favor of public sustainable investments

Local authorities are key actors of climate transition and social and economic growth. To carry out sustainable, resilient and inclusive infrastructures, cities in emerging and developing countries need access to financing. However, their specific needs (loans with longer maturities), and the degree of the decentralization framework in some countries, together with their political aspect, often lead to distrust from domestic banks.
To encourage banks to take the risk of working with local authorities and enabling cities of all sizes to benefit from loans with favourable financial terms, to finance their investments with a special focus on climate transition, AFD, jointly with the European Union, is developing a dedicated guarantee instrument, CITYRIZ, which will be deployed in 2021 in Africa with potential extension to other parts of the world in a second stage.
Bertrand de Dianous, Head of Local Finance and Decentralization Unit, gives more details about Cityriz.
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