Risk Mitigation Instruments for Infrastructure Finance in Credit-enhancing Transactions

The long gestation period of infrastructure projects  increases the likelihood for unforeseen events taking place By Michael Tichareva In a recent article, we spoke about credit enhancement to accelerate infrastructure investment. Our experience in the African market has shown that credit enhancement is critical to attracting foreign direct investment towards infrastructure. In this article, we discuss risk mitigation instruments that are typically used in credit-enhancing infrastructure transactions. The aim is to get project sponsors and Governments to understand them. Such instruments are used extensively around the World and could be used even more in Zimbabwe and the rest of African market to accelerate infrastructure investment. There is need to develop deeper understanding of these instruments and the requirements of the organisations that issue them. Project sponsors and Governments need to structure transactions that meet the requirements for securing such instruments. In most cases, these risk instruments require the host Governments to provide commitments through Letters of Undertaking.