Washington, April 24, 2025 (Lusa) - Portugal and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank's private sector arm, signed an agreement on Thursday in Washington to create a technical cooperation fund for Portuguese-language countries in Africa.
The agreement was signed by Portugal's minister of state and finance, Joaquim Miranda Sarmento, and the vice-president of the IFC, Ethiopis Tafara, on the sidelines of an informal meeting of finance ministers of member states of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) in the US capital, where the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank are taking place this week.
The fund was set up with a contribution of €1.5 million from Portugal and will be managed by the IFC, according to Portugal's Ministry of Finance.
"We signed a financing instrument for these countries," Miranda Sarmento told Lusa in Washington today. "Lusophony and the CPLP and PALOPs [Portuguese-speaking countries in Africa] are a fundamental axis of Portugal's policy, regardless of governments. It's something that is transversal and consistent throughout different governments, different political combinations and it's very important to us.
"These are countries with which we have a very strong historical, cultural, social and political relationship, with whom we have very significant bonds of friendship and they are countries that, in their development, also offer investment and wealth generation opportunities for Portuguese companies, helping them to internationalise more and more," he added.
The fund - dubbed the 'Portugal-IFC Partnership in Lusophone Africa' - is a strategic initiative aimed at strengthening technical co-operation between Portugal and Portuguese-language countries in Africa within the scope of the Lusophone Development Compact, an initiative in which the IFC is a partner.
The initiative, also known as the Lusophone Compact, "is intended to finance technical assistance activities that are fundamental to leveraging the implementation of bankable projects, focused on reducing the infrastructure gap, developing productive sectors and promoting financial inclusion with an approach that integrates social, environmental, gender and governance dimensions," according to official sources.
The compact is a strategic initiative launched in November 2018 in which the participants are the African Development Bank Group, Portugal, PALOPs, the IFC - which became a partner in 2021, given its shared objectives with the initiative - and Brazil (which joined in 2024). Its declared aim is accelerating sustainable, inclusive and diversified private sector growth in the region.
It aims to mobilise and leverage private investment and public-private partnerships through a combination of financing, guarantees, technical assistance and political reforms that remove barriers to development.
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