Coffee With: Ethiopis Tafara (LinkedIn), International Finance Corporation’s (IFC) vice president for Africa. The World Bank’s private sector-focused global development institution has invested a total of USD 10 bn in local development projects since it kicked off operations in Egypt many decades ago and is a prominent backer of private sector players in Egypt.

Tafara recently stepped into the role: Tafara was tapped as the IFC’s VP for Africa just weeks ago and stepped into the role in April, taking over from Sérgio Pimenta, who retired after spending nearly 30 years with the IFC. Tafara has an impressive record, most recently serving as the vice president, chief risk, legal and sustainability officer and partnerships for the World Bank Group’s Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) and as vice president and general counsel for the IFC.

This week Tafara embarked on his first trip to Egypt as regional VP, where he met with a long list of government officials — including President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and Planning and International Cooperation Minister Rania Al Mashat — and private sector players. EnterpriseAM sat down with Tafara yesterday to learn more about his vision and strategy for Africa and his priorities when it comes to the Egyptian market.

EnterpriseAM: Can you tell us a bit more about you and your vision coming into this role?

Ethiopis Tafara: My name is Ethiopis Tafara. I’ve been with the World Bank Group for about 12 years now. I started at the IFC in 2013 as the General Counsel. I spent six or seven years in that role and then I was asked to join MIGA, which is responsible for providing guarantees against political risk, and I spent five years there. We went from about USD 4 bn in guarantees annually to about USD 12 bn by the time I left. Then I was asked to return to the IFC to take on the role of vice president for Africa, which I think is one of the best jobs one could get offered, so of course I said yes. Prior to that, I spent a number of years as a regulator, overseeing capital markets for the US government. I began my career as a lawyer at a law firm and also taught law.

I grew up around the world, as my father was a diplomat for the Ethiopian government. My formative years were spent in Italy and Ethiopia. I came to the US at about 16, went to university, then to law school.

Africa is a continent that has always held a lot of promise, and the demographics make things even more exciting. Around 70% of the population is under the age of 30. By 2050, one in four workers in the world will be African. That’s a huge demographic dividend, but we need to make sure it remains a dividend, and that requires us to focus on job creation. I am hyper-focused on what we can do on the continent to create jobs for this large, energetic, idea-rich, and expectant youth population.

E: You mentioned the potential of the continent — how does the IFC prioritize funding and investments when it comes to the African market?

ET: We’ve just begun developing a strategy we’re calling IFC 2030, which focuses on areas likely to enable job creation. The strategy emphasizes energy, because it’s the ultimate enabler of development, and nothing is possible without energy. You may have heard of our Mission 300 or M300 initiative, under which the World Bank Group aims to reduce the number of people in Africa without electricity from 600 mn to 300 mn by 2030. So energy, especially in Africa, is going to be a major focus for me.

We’re also focusing on access to finance for SMEs, which are responsible for 80-90% of the jobs in any economy. Financing SMEs remains a challenge in many markets, so we’re working to crack that nut in Africa. I’m particularly focused on transport and logistics, as job creation depends on connecting people to markets and markets to other markets. That requires infrastructure of ports, rail, roads, and more.

Agriculture is another key area. It’s a business, and Africa holds huge potential here. About 65% of the world’s uncultivated arable land is in Africa. The potential is vast, but we need to turn it into real business by investing in agricultural value chains. We’ll also be looking at digital infrastructure. Connecting markets isn’t just about roads and ports, it’s also about digital access. The world is digitally connected, so we need to focus on extending access to digitalization on the continent.

Tourism is another sector with major job creation potential. It’s an ecosystem, including hotels, services, and supply chains, and the multiplier effects are huge. A statistic I like to quote is that around 60 mn people visit Paris every year, yet Egypt only attracts around 16 mn tourists a year despite its many touristic destinations like Aswan, the Giza Pyramids, Alexandria, and Sharm El Sheikh. Imagine attracting 60 mn tourists and the impact that would have on job creation and economic growth. Tourism contributes significantly to the economies of Italy, France, and Spain. That model can be applied in Africa.

There’s also trade finance — that’s one thing we want to spend a fair amount of attention on. We need to figure out how to get African countries to see their neighborhood as a market and not only think about exporting outside of Africa. There’s a role for us to play there in terms of trade finance itself and looking at how we can help break the barriers that make it difficult for countries to trade with their neighbors, whether they are physical or regulatory.

So these are the key areas of our strategy. I’ll be working with my directors to apply this strategy in Africa, identifying the development gaps — where we fall short in transport, logistics, energy, and health — and how we can close those gaps. It’s also about tailoring our approach country by country, because each situation is different. But we start with the big picture, apply it regionally, and then implement it locally.

We are looking to take more equity stakes in companies and help them expand locally and potentially regionally or globally as well. We want to go back to our role as an equity investor, particularly in the African continent. I always say that with debt you run companies, and with equity you build companies. So now we need to build companies on the continent to help close the development gaps. Equity is the riskiest kind of investment but has a huge impact, so we want to be careful and choose the right companies at the right time.

We also want to focus on local currency lending as we lend to companies, many of which don’t generate their revenues in hard currency. So lending to them in hard currency when they’re generating revenues in local currency puts a burden on them in terms of debt service. So we’re aiming to figure out how we can actually have local currency facilities in all the countries where we operate. The sources of the local currency will vary depending on the market, but this lets us lend more sustainably. Hard currency lending still makes sense for exporters, but local currency gives us more impact with less strain on borrowers.

E: The African and Egyptian labor markets are seeing major changes due to the AI boom. How do you see that shift, and how will these markets adapt to that change?

ET: AI is going to be a game changer, but I don’t think it will eliminate jobs. Jobs will remain central to any economy. Many things will still require a human touch and originality, which is something AI can’t provide. Many of the sectors I mentioned won’t be fully replaced by AI. Take healthcare, for example — while some of its aspects may be automated, others won’t. The care provided by nurses, support for the elderly, and consultations that involve human judgment and analysis all require human presence and empathy. So AI is a complement to what we’re doing. It won’t eliminate jobs — it could enhance some, transform others, but not replace them altogether.

E: Have you employed any changes to your strategy in terms of job creation to adapt to this change?

ET: I think we’ve designed our strategy with the awareness that AI is out there. We deliberately picked sectors where we believe there’s still strong potential for human employment, and these sectors will not be overtaken by AI. That said, take the M300 initiative, for example — while job creation doesn’t come directly from building energy infrastructure, AI can help us implement smart grids or more efficient energy distribution. Energy is the enabler as it powers the businesses that will create jobs. AI is part of our thinking, but we’ve chosen areas where job creation can happen despite the rise of AI.

E: So looking at Egypt, what are your initial impressions from your current visit and meetings with officials over the past two days?

ET: My initial impression is that Egypt has a very dynamic market and a very committed government, which is committed to enabling the private sector to help address development gaps. There’s also significant interest and support from the multilateral community. At an event yesterday, we had a big gathering, including senior representatives from multilateral institutions, investors, and the government, all of them thinking about how they can contribute to Egypt’s development. I’m also very impressed by what the IFC has achieved in Egypt.

Just this year, we will commit around USD 1.2 bn in Egypt. Looking at our pipeline, we expect to match or even surpass this year’s figure next year. So while it’s only been two days, my impressions are very positive. There’s real energy and commitment here.

E: How do you view the reforms the Madbouly government has announced over the past year?

The asset monetization program is one important area. The government is exploring how to bring in the private sector to modernize and expand services traditionally run by the public sector, which can improve efficiency and ease pressure on public finances. They’re committed to figuring out what reforms are needed to make that happen. Based on the conversations we’ve had and the events I attended, it’s clear the government is committed to figuring this out — how to enable the private sector to help close development gaps in health, financial access, energy, and tourism, which was generally the focus of a lot of discussions.

E: Which sectors will the IFC be prioritizing when it comes to the Egyptian market?

ET: I can see tourism being an area where we might be able to do more. We are already looking at the airports under the asset monetization program — airports are critical to any tourism venture, but we want to look at tourism as an ecosystem. You have to look at hotels, you’ve to look at airports, you have to look at the supply chain for servicing or the services that support hotels. We’ll always continue to work with financial institutions because financial inclusion is such an important part of our mandates.

Our portfolio in Egypt is quite well balanced, but I would say where we need to really push is on manufacturing and export. There are also creative industries, that is something that has come to the fore in the past five years as an area of greater focus for us, given how creative industries end up being a huge source of business. We’re looking to see if we can identify local champions that we could potentially grow into national champions. It’s not a typical area when you think about development finance over the course of the past 50-60 years, but I think it’s actually one where there may be a comparative advantage on this continent, so we should certainly lean into it.

E: Lastly, we have to touch on what’s happening with the strategy to offer local airports development to private players through public-private partnerships. Where does the strategy currently stand?

ET: The whole idea is to assist the government in leveraging private finance for airport upgrades and expansion, and they’ve identified a number of airports for which they want to do this. Our job is to figure out what the right partnership model is with the private sector on an airport-by-airport basis or looking at a collection of airports, and we’re going to deliver that to them shortly. Our role is actually to make sure that we look at that particular airport, figure out what it needs, and make sure that the tender process and the tender criteria reflect what we think is in the best interests of that particular airport.

I am very excited about all of this — the upgrades of these airports are an important part of seeing what can be done in terms of increasing the volume of visitors. It is going to have a positive impact on the economy.