BRICS countries are major investors in Africa, according to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who said Moscow expects the bloc’s New Development Bank (NDB) to operate on the continent.
Talking to the pan-African monthly Hommes d’Afrique magazine, Lavrov said that “currently the bank is in its infancy.”
“We expect it to operate not only in the Republic of South Africa (RSA), but in other countries of the continent in the future, particularly through the Africa Regional Center (ARC), which was set up last August in Johannesburg,” he said.
The minister also expressed satisfaction about the African countries being “increasingly interested in deepening practical cooperation with the five (BRICS) states.”
The BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) created the New Development Bank in July 2014. It funds infrastructure projects within the bloc. The bank’s capital is up to $100 billion.
The first project was a $811 million loan for a rooftop solar power project in China. NDB is also considering two Russian projects worth over half a billion dollars.
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