Italy announces investment of €5.5 billion on the African continent

Italy announced this Monday (29 January 2024) an investment of €5.5 billion in Africa. The application is part of the “Mattei Plan”, which aims to reduce immigration to Europe in future African generations in search of a better quality of life. The country is one of the main gateways to the Mediterranean for immigrants from the continent.

During the carrying out of Italy-Africa Summit, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni stated that the project can count on € 5.5 billion between credits, donations and guarantees. Like this, € 3 billion from the Italian fund will be allocated to climate and € 2.5 billion for cooperation for the continent’s development.

“Thankful to Italy for placing cooperation with Africa at the center of its foreign policy and G7 Presidency. The Mattei Plan is an important help for this new phase of the EU-Africa partnership”, stated the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.

The meeting that included the announcement of the “Mattei Plan” was held at Palazzo Madama, in Rome, and had representation from 45 African countries.

UNDERSTAND THE MATTEI PLAN

The project intends to cover topics related to agriculture, education, health and countries’ access to water, in addition to proposing to make Italy a bridge for sending African gas to the European continent. Here is the full document with the 5 pillars of the program (PDF – 71 kB, in Italian).

• education: the plan talks about expanding and improving teaching in schools on the continent. Proposes that the basic curriculum of African schools may undergo changes to comply with Italian educational models;
• health: program says it aims to increase the African population’s access to hospitals, illness treatments and disease prevention;
• agriculture: the proposal wants to encourage family farming, strengthen supply chains, increase the population’s access to water through the creation of wells and support green energy in Africa to combat the population’s malnutrition rates;
• energy: the Mattei Plan says it wants to make Italy a bridge between Africa and Europe. According to the project, African green energy exported to Europeans has the potential to reinforce the energy efficiency of countries that have suffered from the increase in the cost of energy generation since the beginning of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.