Infrastructure Development Finance Co has signed an agreement with Africa Finance Corp (AFC) to help Indian companies enter the continent to expand in infrastructure, logistics, mining, power and telecom, it said late on Thursday.
IDFC has a current consolidated networth of $2.5 billion, and balance sheet size of $10.7 billion, it added.
AFC, established in 2007 with a capital base of $1 billion, provides project structuring advice and risk capital to address Africa's infrastructure development needs in power, oil and gas, heavy industry, transport, and telecommunications sectors.
"In the coming decade Africa will attract increasing attention from global investors," Rajiv Lall, managing director and CEO of IDFC, said in the statement.
"The continent's growth, its requirement and its vast reserves of resources will pave the way for increased collaboration between Indian companies and the African continent."
India is banking on diplomacy, development and its entrepreneurial private sector to woo African nations to open markets and natural resources to Asia's third-largest economy.
The country's state-run oil firms are beginning to invest in Africa, coal and diamond firms have invested across the continent, and new embassies in Niger and Malawi have been opened to assist firms with securing uranium for India's fast-growing nuclear power industry.
At 12 pm, shares of IDFC were up 0.33 per cent to 120.45 rupees in a weak Mumbai market.