On Thursday the 28th of July 2016, an international investment grade multilateral finance institution, investing in key infrastructure projects across Africa, the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), announced that a strategically important country in the Horn of Africa, Djibouti, has become its newest member.

This development comes two weeks after Djibouti signed a $75 million financing agreement with the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (IFTC), a unit of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) based in Saudi Arabia.

“We look forward to working with AFC to deliver projects with real and positive economic and social impact across the country,” said Mr. Ali Guelleh Aboubaker, Minister of Investments in the Office of the President of Djibouti.

This membership enables the AFC receive preferred creditor status within the country; the benefits of which reduce its investment risk, enabling the corporation to provide more competitive financing solutions.

“Djibouti is a small but important market, with natural strengths as a transport and logistics hub thanks to the government’s successful free trade policies and its location at the gateway to the Red Sea. Djibouti offers some great investment opportunities and AFC is delighted to be assisting the country to meet its full growth potential and to create jobs for its citizens,” said Andrew Alli, President & CEO of Africa Finance Corporation.

Djibouti has become the third East African country to join the AFC after Rwanda and Uganda, and so far, the corporation has invested over $3.2 billion in Africa.

Here are eight things you need to know about Djibouti

  • The President of Djibouti is Ismail Omar Guelleh. In 1999, he became the second president since independence. He changed the constitution of the country in 2011, when term limits got in the way of a third term for him. This is his fourth five-year term as President of Djibouti.
  • The country has more advantages than other East African countries around it because of its shipping routes. All the landlocked countries around it need to have access to the wider world through i. 
  • It is the most important hub of connectivity in East Africa. The country has seven submarine fibre-optic cables, the kind which carry a huge bulk of the world’s digital information.
  • The East African country has Lake Assal, which is 10 times saltier than the ocean. It is not bountiful in fresh water reservoirs.
  • The country hopes to be the first African country to be powered solely by renewable energy. It is currently harnessing the Khamsin winds, which blow through the country from June to August, to power a 60-megawatt wind farm.
  • It sits beside the narrow Bab el-Mandeb canal, which is a gateway to the Suez Canal at the mouth of the Red Sea.
  • It is home to the first military base of the United States of America, Japan and China.
  • Djibouti is also the US military’s regional hub for drones.

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