Citadel Capital’s plan for East Africa’s growing businesses
- East African
- 27 January 2014
"If you are satisfied with a one per cent return on your investment, buy 10-year Swiss bonds. Otherwise, go to Africa."
"If you are satisfied with a one per cent return on your investment, buy 10-year Swiss bonds. Otherwise, go to Africa."
The land grabs are not an Equatorian issue. It is a national problem that should not be looked at from a regional or tribal perspective.
"Africa will be more food insecure if these investments go to other parts of the world and Africa has to turn to those places to buy food," according to Dr Ousmane Badiane of IFPRI
Egypt’s Citadel Capital has been busy defending its work in Africa, such as in South Sudan where it has taken a number of measures to ensure its agribusiness project benefits the local community and doesn’t step on small farmer toes.
To date, Citadel Capital has invested US$ 25 million in the Concord farm project, which makes us by far one of the largest investors in South Sudan outside the oil industry.
The bottom line is that it is the responsibility of the host governments to set policies and a legal framework that protect their citizens’ interests – by encouraging investment, and protecting the rights of affected individuals.
Citadel Capital, which owns farms in Egypt and Sudan, is expected to start talks with the China Investment Corporation next month.
The Overseas Private Investment Corporation, the US government’s development finance institution, approved Wednesday a $150 mln financial package that will go to Citadel Capital, a regional private equity firm that just completed its first wheat harvest in Sudan.
Egyptian private equity firm Citadel Capital, which has leased 259,500 acres for farming in Unity state, is among dozens of foreign entities to have struck large land deals in the new country.
The private-equity firm has a 250,000-acre (101,181-hectare) farm in southern Sudan and a similar-sized area of land in the north.
Wafra, Citadel Capital’s Platform Company for investments in the Sudanese agricultural industry, released today details of recent operational milestones including the conclusion of its first commercial wheat harvest in Sudan’s White Nile State.
Both companies are active farmland investors, with Citadel controlling a reported 200,000 hectares in Sudan and operating Egypt's largest dairy farm.
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