New bank curbs may crimp capital for Africa's infrastructure needs

In fact, the International Project Finance Association's Anthony Sykes told participants to the 'Project Finance Conference 2010' in Johannesburg on Tuesday, that the regulatory tightening would definitely have consequences for the future availability of private finance for African infrastructure projects.

He warned that those believing that private finance would simply be released to close Africa's estimated yearly infrastructure financing gap of some $31 billion were "living on cloud-cuckoo-land". African policymakers would, therefore, be advised to take account of these new regulatory restrictions when seeking to prepare and market projects that required private finance.
Sykes, who also works for the Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, warned that Africa would "simply not achieve the inflows" being sought unless project promoters "got realistic" about how projects were packaged and marketed.