India to fund infrastucture in Africa

India is taking the logistics infrastructure route in order to gain access to African minerals. The government has created a US$1-billion fund to provide soft loans to fertiliser to build logistics and infrastructure facilities in countries like Eritrea, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ghana in order to open the door to acquiring fertiliser mineral assets. “It is necessary to deepen economic cooperation leading to convergence of economic needs of two countries before mineral asset acquisitions can be successfully negotiated,” a senior official in India’s Department of Chemicals and Fertiliser is quoted as saying. While a number of Indian companies operate out of South Africa, Tunisia and Morocco, they have not been able to extend their footprint into other countries owing to a lack of government support. The soft lines of credit were expected to fill this gap, the official said. India is fully dependent on imports to meet domestic demand for phosphatic and potassic fertilisers and imports about 10 million tons a year of urea. Any long-term bilateral economic engagement with African countries leading to fertiliser mineral asset acquisition would have to adopt a consortium approach comprising Indian fertiliser, mining and infrastructure companies.