Key facts
- Implementing Partner:
Agence Française de Développement (AFD)
- Guarantee volume:
up to €176 million
- Global Gateway areas of partnership:
Climate and Energy
- Sectors:
Urban development
- Geographical focus:
Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and the Pacific, EU Southern Neighbourhood, Western Balkans, Türkiye
- Type of support provided:
Financing, Technical assistance
- Types of investments:
Loans
- Investment period:
Open for investments until October 2027
- Technical assistance:
up to €10 million
Description
Climate funds for intermediate cities are scarce as few of the largest cities in development countries are deemed creditworthy and not many can access local capital markets. FAST-Cities aims at improving the public financing ecosystem, to offer urban authorities (directly or through banks) longer loan tenor matching the economic life of the underlying financed assets.
The main objective is to enable intermediary cities to provide satisfactory public services such as solid waste management, water and sanitation, transport, housing; providing access to public and private financing, and to sustain local development and job creation.
This guarantee will cover credit risks under a loan-by-loan basis. The portfolio will consist of:
- loans extended by AFD to cities and operators (with a focus on intermediate cities) with a longer maturity
- credit lines to eligible local PFIs with a longer maturity
The policy dialogue and the technical assistance will contribute into mainstreaming the climate-oriented features of the projects included in the local authorities’ capital programme.
How can businesses and investors get involved?
If you are an investor with an interest in this guarantee program, we recommend getting in touch directly with the AFD.
Contact: AFD Contact Form
About AFD
The Agence Française de Développement (AFD) Group funds, supports and accelerates the transition to a fairer and more sustainable world. Focusing on climate, biodiversity, peace, education, urban development, health and governance, their teams carry out more than 4,200 projects in France’s overseas departments and territories and another 150 countries.