Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) establishes a wholly owned Bermudian subsidiary, AFC Captive Insurance Company, to strengthen its risk management and support the growth of its infrastructure financing across Africa. The captive is backed by up to US$30 million in equity capital and licensed as a class 2 insurer. It initially provides cover for loans extended by AFC to its counterparties, allowing the corporation to retain risk more efficiently and reduce its reliance on external commercial insurance markets over time. AFC Captive also has the flexibility to extend capacity to AFC affiliates and select third parties, with up to 20 per cent of underwriting capacity allocated to that business. The corporation expects the captive to broaden its offering to a wider range of third-party clients over time. The formation builds on AFC’s credit profile. The corporation holds an ‘A3’ long-term issuer rating from Moody’s and, in January 2026, S&P Global assigned it an ‘A’ long-term and ‘A-1’ short-term issuer credit rating with a ‘positive’ outlook. AFC has also received renewed ‘AAA’ domestic issuer ratings with ‘stable’ outlooks from China Chengxin International Credit Rating and S&P Global (China) Ratings. AFC Captive will seek to build its own investment-grade credit profile as it develops scale and operating capacity. Wola Asase, deputy director and head of syndications at AFC, manages the subsidiary as head of AFC Captive and a director on its board. Samaila Zubairu, president and chief executive officer of AFC, says: "Africa's infrastructure needs demand innovative approaches that allow us to mobilise more capital and extend financing capacity across the continent. AFC Captive is an important addition to our platform, enhancing our ability to manage risk, deploy capital more efficiently, and scale investment into the infrastructure and industrial projects that will drive long-term growth and economic transformation." Asase says: "AFC Captive gives us greater flexibility in how we structure and support transactions across our portfolio. By using insurance more strategically, we can expand market capacity, improve capital efficiency and unlock financing for projects that may otherwise be constrained by limited or costly external insurance." AFC was established in 2007 and has 48 member countries. It has invested more than US$19 billion across 36 African countries since inception.
