National Infrastructure Banks - new guidance

The Guidance Note on National Infrastructure Banks and Similar Financing Facilities was created to assist governments interested in establishing, or reforming, a National Infrastructure Bank or a similar financing facility (NIB) to target government policies and maximise the impact that infrastructure banks can have in:

• delivering quality infrastructure projects;
• encouraging private investment; and
• providing value for end users.

Global Infrastructure Hub’s CEO, Marie Lam-Frendo said: “The current infrastructure gap of $USD 15 trillion will not be solved by business-as-usual solutions. Increasingly, we are seeing the value of coordinated efforts by actors to help quality infrastructure projects come to reality. Within this trend, national infrastructure banks have a pivotal and complementary role to play as a key enabler for mobilising private capital and supporting project preparation.”

The Guidance Note, developed by the GI Hub in collaboration with Cambridge Economic Policy Associates Limited (CEPA), identifies lessons learned from various existing NIBs in both emerging markets and high-income countries through 11 case studies which explore different NIBs that have existed from 1945.

National Infrastructure Banks have a pivotal and complementary role to play as a key enabler for mobilising private capital and supporting project preparation

These case studies examine a range of mature and new institutions, in both high-income countries and emerging markets, with three case studies focusing on green finance.

The role that national infrastructure banks could play in addressing barriers to infrastructure provision is an area that has not been explored as much as others stated CEPA’s Director, Mark Cockburn.

“There is an opportunity for them to play a catalytic role, in particular in raising local currency finance in emerging markets and potentially in supporting the development of project pipelines” he said.

View the Guidance Note on National Infrastructure Banks and Similar Financing Facilities here