India should focus on growing investments across Africa, as the size of the continent assures growth for all and intelligent Indian investments will ensure growth said David Rasquinha, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Export-Import (Exim) Bank of India. The infrastructure needs of the African continent surpass the capacity provided by institutions from India, China, Japan, Korea, and the US.

During the period of 2018-19, the bank has sanctioned funded and non-funded assistance to corporate houses amounting to more than more than Rs 11.36 billion for financing overseas investment in eight African countries. Now, the bank is pushing for project exports. An Exim Bank study reveals that contract awards for projects financed by global multilateral development banks (MDBs) amounted to nearly $155.7 billion during 2014-2018, indicative of immense opportunities for project exporters in India. Indian companies secured contracts amounting to $21 billion during this period in projects funded by the major MDBs.

"Foreign buyers of project exports rarely approach financing as an afterthought. Rather, financing is regularly a core component of evaluating bids and identifying sourcing—complete with weighting scales on relative financing terms," Rasquinha said.

The Exim Bank is also on track to raise the targeted $2 billion from domestic and international markets in 2019-20. It has raised more than $300 million from the Japanese market and positive feedback from outreach programmes, such as roadshows, signalled the target would be comfortably met by the end of the financial year, Rasquinha said.