Podcast: Export-Echo Transcripts

Transcript of the Export Echo episode “Solar Power for Angola: Global Gateway, Team Germany & Rural Electrification” 

[00:00:00] Intro & Outro:  Export Echo, the Euler Hermes podcast on the German government’s export credit guarantees and topics relating to international export finance. 

[00:00:16] Jennifer Löwen: Welcome to today's episode of Export Echo. My name is Jennifer Loewen, and I'm your host. I'm very excited about today's conversation because we will be exploring a topic that perfectly illustrates how international cooperation, sustainable development, and export finance can come together to create impact on the ground. 

[00:00:37] Jennifer Löwen: Today, we will discuss how MCA's ambitious solar project in Angola forms part of the European Union's Global Gateway strategy, the role of Team Germany, and how export finance is supporting rural electrification in communities across Angola. We will also look at the opportunities these projects create for small and medium enterprises in Germany and the importance of partnerships in delivering sustainable infrastructure solutions. 

[00:01:06] Jennifer Löwen: To help us better understand this fascinating project, I'm delighted to welcome two excellent guests. First of all, I would like to welcome Jenny Tala. Jenny is director Southern Africa at the German Trade and Investment Agency, GTAI, and has been based in Johannesburg, South Africa, since 2024. With her extensive experience and knowledge of the region, she has been supporting businesses to identify opportunities and grow in far away markets. 

[00:01:37] Jennifer Löwen: I'm also very pleased to welcome Rodrigo Costera. Rodrigo is responsible for structured finance at the MCA Group. MCA was founded in Portugal in 1998 in the construction sector and has since evolved into an international business platform, active in areas such as energy, urban development, infrastructure, and health. 

[00:02:00] Jennifer Löwen: But I'm sure Rodrigo will better explain what MCA does today. The company employs more than 1,000 people across Europe and Africa and plays an important role in delivering large-scale development projects. Jenny, Rodrigo, thank you both for joining me today. I'm very much looking forward to our discussion and to learn more about how solar energy is helping electrify Angola and what this project can teach us about international cooperation and export opportunities. 

[00:02:29] Jennifer Löwen: Let's get started Jenny, maybe to kick us off with a question, what is Global Gateway and why is it relevant to German companies?  

[00:02:40] Jenny Tala: Thank you, Jennifer. So Global Gateway is the European Union strategic investment initiative to strengthen sustainable and trusted partnerships around the world through infrastructure, connectivity, and industrial development projects. 

[00:02:54] Jenny Tala: It combines development, economic, and geopolitical objectives under common European framework and focuses on areas such as energy, transport, digital infrastructure, agriculture, healthcare, and critical raw materials. The initiative was originally launched by the European Union with the objective of mobilizing 300 billion euro in public and private investment by 2027. 

[00:03:21] Jenny Tala: This target was already reached ahead of schedule in 2025, prompting the European Commission to raise its ambition to more than 400 billion euro of investment by 2027. I think what's important to know is that Global Gateway is not primarily a new funding instrument. Rather, it brings together existing European national and development finance instruments under a common framework, making them more visible, accessible, and better coordinated. 

[00:03:50] Jenny Tala: So for German companies, this creates easier access to project opportunities, financing partners, and risk mitigation instruments while providing a clearer entry point into the broader Team Europe ecosystem. Many projects require exactly the technologies and expertise for which German companies are internationally recognized, from infrastructure and industrial solutions to agro-processing or critical raw material value chains. 

[00:04:17] Jenny Tala: And last but not least, Global Gateway also serves as an important strategic purpose. Europe is already Africa's largest trading and investment partner, but this is not always reflected in the public debate. So Global Gateway provides a common European label that makes Europe's contribution more visible and demonstrates that the EU and its member states are investing in long-term partnerships across the continent. 

[00:04:41] Jennifer Löwen: Yeah, that's right. Global Gateway has really come a long way, and I can underline that it's really of utmost importance. Beginning of this year, the German government has launched its so-called National Investment Hub for Global Gateway as one of the first EU member countries. 

[00:05:02] Jennifer Löwen: This means that now companies, German companies, European companies, have an access point where they can place their inquiries and demands for support when it comes to very concrete transactions that are of relevance to the Global Gateway agenda. At the National Investment Hub, it is then discussed if the requested or inquired support by the businesses can already be mobilized at the national level by Team Germany players, or if further EU support is needed. 

[00:05:33] Jennifer Löwen: This really underlines also that the German government is supporting Global Gateway and is supporting Global Gateway also in the area of helping integrate business interests, European business interests, into the implementation of that strategy. But I would be interested, uh, Rodrigo, when did you first, uh, learn about Global Gateway? 

[00:05:56] Jennifer Löwen: How did you come across it?  

[00:05:58] Rodrigo Costeira: Hello. Thank you for having me. Indeed, the Global Gateway, uh, has been, uh some sort of a blessing to, to MCA Deutschland because we are implementing one of its flagship projects, which is the Angolan Rural Electrification Program, a project that we will discuss here during this podcast, uh, episode. 

[00:06:20] Rodrigo Costeira: This project was, uh, flagged as a Global Gateway, uh, project in twenty twenty-four, if I recall, uh, correctly. And since, it has brought great visibility to the project, it has brought great political support, uh, it has facilitated a lot of contacts with relevant stakeholders. So we have a very positive experience from this branding, um, that is associated with the Angolan Rural Electrification Project. 

[00:06:56] Jennifer Löwen: And how do you see Global Gateway developing from, you know, your perspective as, as a European business?  

[00:07:03] Rodrigo Costeira: So the Global Gateway, uh, in accordance to our experience, has a, a stronger political, um, statement. Mm-hmm. And the activity of MCA in the Global South is, um, heavily based on infrastructure projects deployed, uh, for sovereigns. 

[00:07:27] Rodrigo Costeira: So the opportunities that the Global Gateway can bring to, to the private sector are relevant in terms of, uh, letting, uh, companies know about the existing projects, the existing plans of the local stakeholders, do marketing, exercises, give us support locally through the EU offices and through other institutions. 

[00:07:55] Rodrigo Costeira: So there are a number of political support actions that the Global Gateway can bring to the private sector in order to facilitate their position and deliverance in these countries.  

[00:08:11] Jennifer Löwen: Yeah. No, that, that is really true. And as I said, I think there's lots of developments also happening since, 2024 when the MCA project in Angola became a flagship that under Global Gateway, the EU really has put emphasis also on the team nationals to organize themselves to, become a one-stop shop to, to their businesses and to coordinate the different instruments from political support to, you know, coordinating also the existing instruments such as export credits, but also in the development finance space to support European business, but also, of course, the development, in the partner countries. 

[00:08:59] Jennifer Löwen: So, Jenny, what has been GTAI's role in this, and how do you see yourself acting in the Global Gateway agenda?  

[00:09:10] Jenny Tala: So at Germany Trade & Invest, our main role is to help German companies identify and access international business opportunities. We monitor markets, we analyze investment trends, we track major projects around the world. 

[00:09:25] Jenny Tala: And within the Global Gateway context, we act both as an information provider and a facilitator. So one, we help companies understand where opportunities exist, which sectors are growing, and how they can become involved in upcoming projects. We have also developed dedicated Global Gateway information products because many companies still find the initiative difficult to navigate and are unsure how to access available support. 

[00:09:53] Jenny Tala: In addition, and maybe most importantly, you mentioned it already, GTAI was recently awarded the mandate to serve as the German Global Gateway investment hub on a national level on behalf of the German government and together with our institutional partners. This hub is the intersection between the European Union businesses and the partners, and it serves as a central entry point at a national level where companies can submit project proposals, receive guidance on suitable finance and support instruments. 

[00:10:28] Jenny Tala: So the objective is really to make the system easier to navigate and ensure that companies can focus on developing projects rather than identifying the right institution-  

[00:10:36] Jennifer Löwen: Yeah ...  

[00:10:36] Jenny Tala: to support them. And we're actually already seeing considerable interest from companies from many countries, but particularly for projects in Africa  

[00:10:46] Jennifer Löwen: No, that is right. 

[00:10:47] Jennifer Löwen: And I mean, from my perspective, as the Export Credit Guarantee Scheme implemented by Euler Hermes also forms part of this Global Gateway Investment Hub. This is actually, how do I say, the operationalization of Team Germany, how I would call it, because here we are as Team Germany consisting of GTAI, who is leading the hub together with the Export Credit Guarantee Scheme, DG, GIZ. 

[00:11:16] Jennifer Löwen: We're really coming together and discussing concrete transactions brought in by businesses, seeing how we can support them together as the one-stop shop. So I think this is really a success and, uh, also an invitation here for companies listening to the podcast to, engage and let us know what their needs are. 

[00:11:38] Rodrigo Costeira: I can also echo that, Jennifer and Jenny. I mean, MCA has been present in a number of initiatives in African countries, notably conferences and, and others this year. And we were positively surprised by GIZ, by GTAI, by other German institutions that supported MCA Deutschland in these conferences, given the Team Germany angle and their Global Gateway view to assist these companies in promoting their activities in European investment in these regions. 

[00:12:18] Rodrigo Costeira: We have very concrete examples of this, so it is with a very good opinion that I share this.  

[00:12:26] Jennifer Löwen: No, thanks. And I think there's really a momentum, and it's good to hear that also your feedback from the business side that it's the momentum is reaching you because you are the target group of that. 

[00:12:41] Jenny Tala: Yes. The project is actually a very good example of how complementary instruments can support project implementation and also create visibility.  

[00:12:50] Jennifer Löwen: But this is a bit of a teaser, so, yeah, maybe let's, move more towards the project example that we want to discuss in today's podcast. But maybe as a starting point, Rodrigo, maybe you can tell us a bit more what MCA does, exactly what a typical project for you looks like. 

[00:13:14] Rodrigo Costeira: Okay. So MCA is, as you explained in the very beginning, a Portuguese-based EPC company. It started out more than twenty-five years ago with Portugal. It evolved into an European player with offices in many European countries, Germany, of course France, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and Portugal being obvious. 

[00:13:38] Rodrigo Costeira: And also with a very strong activity in Africa, started in Portuguese-speaking Africa mostly, and now with the intent to set a strong footprint in the Southern African region. Angola is a natural market, Mozambique too. I mean, the Portuguese cultural ties to these countries are, are obvious. 

[00:14:03] Rodrigo Costeira: Yeah. And MCA has been implementing projects in the infrastructure sector for more than twenty-five years in these regions. Just to give you a very quick overview of the group, so MCA has four business segments: infrastructures, urban development, the health sector, and the energy sector. We are currently implementing This flagship project under the energy sector umbrella in Angola, and I can deep dive into it in the next questions, I believe. 

[00:14:36] Jennifer Löwen: Perfect. Maybe you could explain a bit more the EPC structure, engineering, procurement, construction, and why it is so important to implement large scale projects, or why do governments or clients opt to go for such a structure?  

[00:14:55] Rodrigo Costeira: Of course. So, an EPC project is a project that contemplates the whole scope of the project. 

[00:15:03] Rodrigo Costeira: So it contemplates the engineering, all the development work that is done in the very beginning to set up the project in a complete manner. The procurement, so the sourcing of all this technology and equipment in order to implement the project, and finally, the construction. So we wrap up all the project engineering, procurement, and construction, and deliver turnkey the project to the end client. 

[00:15:34] Rodrigo Costeira: This ensures that from A to Z, the client has the project that it wanted, the concept that was sold in the beginning. The client ensures that this is delivered as envisaged. In very large and complex projects, this tends to be the less cumbersome and more effective solution because-  

[00:16:00] Rodrigo Costeira: it allows for the whole project to be managed, developed, then delivered with one single point of contact.  

[00:16:08] Jennifer Löwen: Yeah. And how does the financing angle come in? So basically the client will seek for an EPC structure in combination with financing, or how does it typically go?  

[00:16:22] Rodrigo Costeira: I mean we are discussing in particular, in this case, financing with ECA support. 

[00:16:29] Jennifer Löwen: Yeah.  

[00:16:29] Rodrigo Costeira: So ECA financing. And here it is crucial that in these very large projects, you have the EPC angle with financing in mind because you always need content in the end of the day. And when you're talking about, for instance, an energy project or electrification project or another type of project, you need to develop the technology that will be delivered in accordance with the content that you can source from the financing that is available from a given region. 

[00:17:03] Rodrigo Costeira: Imagine an energy project, fully renewable with solar PV and battery storage. There are different kinds of technology in the battery storage space. So if you define the battery storage component of the project as being a certain technology, you will only be able to source from certain regions. 

[00:17:26] Rodrigo Costeira: If you define in the engineering phase another type of battery storage technology, you will be able to source from other regions. So this means that you will use the ECA of the country where the technology is available.  

[00:17:44] Rodrigo Costeira: Hence why it is crucial to structure and to develop a project hand in hand with the financing angle that is envisaged for the project itself. 

[00:17:59] Jennifer Löwen: What role does the financing in such transaction play with regard to the competitiveness of the overall offer?  

[00:18:10] Rodrigo Costeira: If I understand correctly, your question is how attractive the financing is for a project of this type, right?  

[00:18:17] Jennifer Löwen: Yes.  

[00:18:17] Rodrigo Costeira: So in some of these markets of the Global South, the financing is not as widespread or as available as it is in other markets in the Western world or in other regions. 

[00:18:30] Rodrigo Costeira: Hence financing plays a pivotal role to enable the implementation of the project. And usually, if the project is a large infrastructure project, it plays even a more important role because there may be financing available, but not in very large ticket sizes or with large tenors that enable the repayment of the project in a manner that will also allow the infrastructure to also play its role in developing the local economy. 

[00:19:06] Rodrigo Costeira: Yeah. So in this case, I believe the regime that ECA guarantees have for, renewable energy projects was pivotal to make this project extremely attractive from a financing standpoint.  

[00:19:21] Jennifer Löwen: And now, since we have been beating around the bush a bit, we really wanna talk about this flagship project we already highlighted in the beginning, the solar, MCA solar project in Angola. 

[00:19:35] Jennifer Löwen: Maybe we can start with you telling us how the MCA solar project came about and what challenges and solutions you found on the way.  

[00:19:46] Rodrigo Costeira: Sure. Happy to do this. So this project is a rural electrification project. But firstly, let me explain to you that Angola is a very vast country. 

[00:19:58] Rodrigo Costeira: It's a huge country that is not heavily populated. It is very sparsely populated, particularly for an African country, and hence, the population is more on the coastal and very large cities, such as the capital city and other large cities in the coast. And this means that the interior, the inner part of the country is not very well served in terms of infrastructure or energy. 

[00:20:28] Rodrigo Costeira: And the government had been trying for a number of years to electrify as much as possible. There is a huge investment in electrification, and we were challenged to deliver a solution to electrify 60 villages. And we started doing the work and in hand with the government. Fourteen of these villages sat quite close to the existing grid, so the solution that was defined for these 14 villages was to extend the existing grid to these village, build a low, voltage network and install meters in all houses of the communities. 

[00:21:05] Rodrigo Costeira: And then on the other 46 villages, the solution was different. It was to build solar PV generation systems, also install battery systems to provide energy when there is no electricity generation through solar PV, so in the nighttime, and then build the necessary medium voltage and the low voltage distribution network, and install meters in all consumption centers in these villages. 

[00:21:38] Rodrigo Costeira: The challenges were immense. I mean, the dimension of this project, for you to understand, it's 60 communities, 250,000-plus households, and more than a million people covered, so it's a very widespread spread and very large projects. And the difficulties were of all sorts. I mean, there was no data, and this was the most difficult element. 

[00:22:01] Rodrigo Costeira: We didn't know how many people lived in each community. We didn't know how many houses there were. We had to make drone footages. We had to count houses with the footage that we took. But for instance, softwares that exist to count the houses are usually Western softwares that were wrote or done to Western reality, and so they didn't recognize   

[00:22:30] Jennifer Löwen: the houses, yeah 

[00:22:31] Rodrigo Costeira: the roofs of the images. So we had to count the houses by hand. So all sorts of difficulties that you can imagine. We ended up counting all houses in the 60 communities. We consulted the data points of the World Bank and other existing data to determine how many people lived there. 

[00:22:54] Rodrigo Costeira: We saw where there were health centers, where there were not health centers, which communities were more agriculture, which ones had industry, what were the potential in these communities to then tailor the energy consumption in each of these villages, the development they would have in the years ahead, and how the energy systems for each of these villages would look like. 

[00:23:18] Rodrigo Costeira: And after all this humongous work has been done, we then needed to go to these places without infrastructure, and taking into account the rainy season, without cell phone coverage. I mean, it's an  

[00:23:34] Jennifer Löwen: an adventure, yes.  

[00:23:36] Rodrigo Costeira: But it really helped. I mean, MCA is present in Angola for more than 20 years. 

[00:23:42] Rodrigo Costeira: They have more than 1,000 people working on the ground. And the reality of the country and the knowledge that there is in Africa, in this country in particular, also helped a lot for this project to see the light of day.  

[00:23:56] Jennifer Löwen: No, that's right. And maybe to add some kind of data from our side, Euler Hermes, through the Export Credit Guarantee Scheme, supported the transaction, I believe, with a 1.2 billion euros cover, which is one of the largest covers we have in Sub-Saharan Africa. 

[00:24:15] Jennifer Löwen: And given the size, also in terms of financials, several banks have been involved. Given its nature, it qualifies as a green loan under the LMA Green Loan Principles. And of course, we ensured compliance, and you ensured compliance with the Equator Principles and IFC Performance Standards. 

[00:24:35] Jennifer Löwen: So just to give you a bit of the financial sizing. We also cooperated with other ECAs in this transaction in terms of risk sharing to make it happen for MCA and for Angola. Maybe a follow-up question, because if you hear solar project, it's not necessarily that you think about German supplies, which, rightly so, you said in the beginning, is the requirement for an ECA to become active and provide cover and enable export financing. 

[00:25:12] Jennifer Löwen: So how did you go about that, and what role did German suppliers play?  

[00:25:17] Rodrigo Costeira: Of course. So, it's quite, an obvious one in terms of the sector. I mean, the energy sector is widespread known, in Germany and the strength that German has in the energy sector, and then solar in particular is - the birth of solar is Germany, so there is a strong tradition of German solar suppliers. 

[00:25:42] Rodrigo Costeira: So what we did in the very beginning is we partnered with some of the best technology suppliers in Germany in order to develop this project and to structure it properly, to have a German product, so to say, a German solution to deliver to the government in this case. But it was not only in technology. 

[00:26:06] Rodrigo Costeira: Of course, these are the key suppliers because those are the enablers of the project. But we found all kinds of German suppliers for this project. I mean, from CCTV to fences to raw materials, such as steel for the structures that support the solar panels, cables, energy cables that need to be supplied, services such as engineering services, insurance package also done by Germany Insurance. 

[00:26:41] Jennifer Löwen: So how many sub-suppliers did you have from Germany altogether?  

[00:26:45] Rodrigo Costeira: We identified more than 200 suppliers. Of course, we ended up doing contracts with much less than this. I mean, four or five dozen of suppliers, but we did go a very long way in order to get as much content as possible, and to also create a competitive environment for the transaction to get the best to our clients in the end. 

[00:27:13] Jennifer Löwen: Yes.  

[00:27:13] Rodrigo Costeira: So it's a very positive experience, I must say.  

[00:27:16] Jennifer Löwen: Yeah. And I think this is also why EPC structures are very important, I mean, at least also in Germany, because they allow lots of small and medium enterprises who themselves would not be in the position to export directly, in this case, to Angola, but to participate in such a transaction. 

[00:27:39] Jennifer Löwen: So therefore, I think you, MCA, and other EPC, players play an important role in also enabling, indirect export from the different countries.  

[00:27:53] Rodrigo Costeira: Yeah, that is certainly the case, and we open the door to these new markets and we have seen, for instance, one of our technology partners has now set up an authorized representative with another European partner it already had here in Europe, in Angola. 

[00:28:12] Rodrigo Costeira: So they now have one more authorized representative and one more market. We have other suppliers that are looking at other realities with us in other projects out of Germany. So we see markets, increasing for the SMEs in Germany that participated in this project. And it is a reality. 

[00:28:39] Rodrigo Costeira: I mean, such a large scale project in these markets that have, that are developing a lot and have a number of these projects to implement in the near future, it's an opportunity for them to be able to tag into these realities.  

[00:28:54] Jennifer Löwen: Yeah, that's true. And I heard that also this cooperation basically between the German ECA and MCA was also a bit of a Team Germany story, because I believe in order to qualify for our cover, for the export credit guarantee cover, MCA decided to set up an office in Germany and was supported by GTAI. 

[00:29:23] Jennifer Löwen: Is that correct?  

[00:29:25] Rodrigo Costeira: Is it for me or for Jenny? I can say yes if it's correct. No, I mean, whoever wants to.  

[00:29:29] Jenny Tala: I mean, you can, you can go first, Rodrigo, and then maybe I can say a bit in general about, something about Team Germany.  

[00:29:36] Rodrigo Costeira: Yeah. No, it is definitely correct. And just to say that,  MCA Deutschland has opened its office almost two years ago in Germany. 

[00:29:46] Rodrigo Costeira: And it has been a success story. We are glad we did it. The office is in Eschborn.  

[00:29:56] Jennifer Löwen: Oh, next to GIZ, also who is based in Eschborn.  

[00:30:01] Rodrigo Costeira: Yes, we have. So we started with the angle of deploying this project. When you do procurement for a project that will have exports in the range of 6 or 700 million euros, I mean, you want the best German procurement team in order to-  

[00:30:17] Rodrigo Costeira: to do these purchases. So this was what we thought when we were starting this. But then all these projects in the Global South, and this is something that we'll go to later on in this podcast, they take some time to, to happen. So we opened the office, and the project didn't start. So what did we do? 

[00:30:36] Rodrigo Costeira: We started working on other things in Germany because we had the office there, and currently we are developing biomethane projects in Germany. We also have biogas to LNG projects in Poland that we are constructing with offtake in Germany. So we have built a interesting activity in Germany out of this project-  

[00:30:56] Rodrigo Costeira: which was extremely interesting. We set up a production line in Germany for another company of the MCA group, Iberglobal. So I mean, this has been an adventure.  

[00:31:08] Jennifer Löwen: Yeah. And you kept busy. Yes. No, that's good. And I mean, Jenny, also, initially you said a bit more about the trade side of GTAI, but also there's the investment side, and that played a role here in order to also help MCA set up in Germany. 

[00:31:27] Jenny Tala: No, we, um, it goes both ways. So, we support German companies with the export activities and then finding the right business opportunities abroad. And we do that mainly through market intelligence briefings and communicating and sharing our information through a lot of different channels. But the other important part of our work is that we promote the location Germany as a country for investment, and we help international investors to set up business in Germany. 

[00:32:02] Jenny Tala: So our colleagues in Berlin really take the companies by the hand and help them identify the right location to set up their business, help with all the administrative and legal processes, and of course, work very closely together with the provincial investment promotion agencies and all other partners in the broader context of-  

[00:32:26] Jenny Tala: Team Germany. So I would say the Team Germany approach is really helping companies a lot to navigate all the different offers that we have from the German side much better. And there's a large support landscape that can sometimes appear complex and different institutions provide different services from market intelligence and networking to finances, financing. 

[00:32:56] Jenny Tala: And the Team Germany approach really aims to bringing all these services together in a coordinated way, and I think that- Yeah ... that's what was needed for a while.  

[00:33:06] Jennifer Löwen: Yeah. And I mean, we just had the Hamburg Sustainability Conference here in Hamburg, where, Euler Hermes is based, and we also signed mission statements amongst the Team Germany players, committing ourselves also and further how to advancing this, I would say, sometimes even change process within our own institutions to basically think beyond our individual silos and try to pass on the baton, I would say, speaking in pictures, where we can really to help German businesses navigate this rather complex structure, to be fair. 

[00:33:49] Jennifer Löwen: But yeah, so just a quick excursion into this experience. But getting back to Angola, Rodrigo, maybe to wrap up your experience, I mean, you said, the challenges were enormous in terms of what you mentioned. The size, the location of the project, the many suppliers involved, I mean, the timeframe it also took in order for the Angolan side to set everything up, the financing, also so many players involved. 

[00:34:21] Jennifer Löwen: So, really a good job getting this done. We're very happy to have played a part in here, but maybe you can share also, what has MCA learned from the project, and where's the journey heading in the region?  

[00:34:38] Rodrigo Costeira: I mean the project is more than halfway through. Um- Yeah 

[00:34:44] Rodrigo Costeira: Fortunately, we have had the opportunity of commencing inaugurating some of these systems. So we had two inaugurations this year. We'll have much more throughout until the end of the year, and the project should be fully implemented until the end of 2027. So this is very good news given all the challenges that are entailed in a project of this magnitude, as you correctly pointed out. 

[00:35:16] Rodrigo Costeira: Lessons learned, I mean, various or a lot. But I would say the most important is Structure, structure, structure. So you need to plan for this in the very first day. The risks that you imagine that can happen will happen- ... because these are projects that take a long time to be implemented. So you need to cater for all the risks, and how will you go about them? 

[00:35:49] Rodrigo Costeira: So in terms of implementation, this will take more time than you think in the first day. What impact will have this in your supply chain, in your raw material purchase, in your currency hedging, and the relationship with the insurance companies, with the transportation companies? I mean, you need to contemplate all these scenarios in the very beginning and try to mitigate them at most so that the implementation of the project doesn't get undermined or jeopardized by the very materialization of these risks-  

[00:36:24] Jennifer Löwen: Yeah 

[00:36:24] Rodrigo Costeira: that will eventually happen. I think this is the best lesson that we can take off this. Of course, we have anticipated a number of the issues that came up during implementation. Others were not anticipated, but thankfully the planning was very well made and the structuring too. And we have very good partners in the syndicate of banks that is assisting us in Euler Hermes, of course, and in the people, in the teams that were involved in this project. 

[00:36:57] Rodrigo Costeira: Constant dialogue is also key, for this to be implemented smoothly. And I think overall it's a very successful experience, and we thank you, both of you- Thank you for the assistance and the- 

[00:37:10] Rodrigo Costeira: cooperation since day one.  

[00:37:12] Jennifer Löwen: Thank you. No, and I mean, in terms of risk planning and mapping, this is, I mean, what we share also in common as export credit agency, obviously. 

[00:37:25] Jennifer Löwen: I mean, trying to map out the economic risk, the political risk, and assess in terms of how can we mitigate them, how can we cooperate them, so that's something we share. No, agreed. Jenny, in terms of your perspective, being based in Johannesburg, what kind of signal does the project send in the region, and where do you see further opportunities? 

[00:37:50] Jenny Tala: So I think the MCA project sends a very positive and powerful message because it shows that large scale renewable energy projects can be successfully implemented in Sub-Saharan Africa, even in challenging environments. It also demonstrates that international partnerships combining local ambition, European financing, and German technology can deliver very tangible results for communities and for economies, and hopefully for investors, projects like this increase confidence because they prove that complex infrastructure investments can be executed successfully and sustainably. So it provides a practical example of what can be achieved through long-term planning and strong partnerships and definitely serves as a flagship project for future renewable energy investments across the region in many ways. 

[00:38:46] Jenny Tala: So the opportunities that I see across Africa are significant and very diverse. We have growing populations, rapid urbanization in many countries, and industrial development. These are just a few of many factors driving demand for investment in infrastructure, energy, transport, water, agriculture, but also digital solutions. 

[00:39:13] Jenny Tala: Of course, renewable energy remains one of the most exciting sectors, and there's a lot happening in this sector in many countries in the region. But we also see strong potential in transport and logistics infrastructure, including ports, rail, and trade corridors, as well as water infrastructure, electricity transmission, grid modernization, et cetera. 

[00:39:37] Jenny Tala: Also, food security and agroprocessing are becoming increasingly important because many African countries are looking to move up the value chain by expanding local processing capacity, improving agricultural productivity, and also by that, reducing dependence on imported food products. In addition, very important critical raw materials and minerals processing is an area that is attracting growing attention. 

[00:40:06] Jenny Tala: A lot of countries across the region are seeking to move beyond the export of raw materials and develop local value addition in sectors such as battery minerals or strategic metals and there's a lot of other opportunities, of course in sectors like healthcare, vocational training, industrial development in general. 

[00:40:29] Jenny Tala: Um, and they are all priorities under the Global Gateway strategy. So that's quite exciting for companies as well.  

[00:40:36] Jennifer Löwen: Yeah, it is. And I mean, there are big challenges. Uh, I mean, the projects take long to develop at times.  

[00:40:44] Jenny Tala: Yes.  

[00:40:44] Jennifer Löwen: And of course, financing, as Rodrigo said initially, it's often the crucial factor, because that's what brings projects to life. 

[00:40:54] Jennifer Löwen: You need to secure the financing, and that's then again, where ECAs and expert credit guarantees can play a role in order to mitigate that risk for the financial institutions and banks providing the loans. So I think we are very much open as the example we just discussed, and Angola has shown to support businesses entering and expanding on the African continent with the many opportunities that there are, and our export credit guarantees can help to, as Rodrigo said, extend the tenors of the financing, which is also very important aspect in order for the governments, if it is a public sector project, to cater for these types of investments within their budgets. 

[00:41:46] Jennifer Löwen: Yeah, as well as achieve more attractive financing conditions due to the, in our case, triple A rating of the German government, which will allow to reduce the financing costs. So I think, we can all come together and make more similar projects happen, hopefully. And, with that, I would like to really thank you a lot for your time and openness in today's podcast, and wishing you all the best of luck, Rodrigo, to bring this Angola MCA project to success at the end of 2027, and always here to engage on new opportunities and continue the success story. 

[00:42:32] Jennifer Löwen: And also Jenny, I mean, we are in touch on a weekly basis, so yeah, very glad also to further build on this Team Germany effort that we have embarked on.  

[00:42:43] Jenny Tala: Thank you, Jennifer.  

[00:42:44] Rodrigo Costeira: Thank you, Jennifer. Thank you, Jenny.  

[00:42:46] Jenny Tala: Thanks for the opportunity, and thanks, Rodrigo. I've been in touch with your colleagues as well about the MCA project because we featured it as well in our reporting. 

[00:42:57] Jenny Tala: So it's great to catch up and hear more about what you're doing.  

[00:43:01] Rodrigo Costeira: Thank you. It's a pleasure. And just to finalize, we would like to thank formally to Team Germany for all the support we have been receiving since 2024, and that has helped us foster our activity in Africa. So thank you very, very much. 

[00:43:25] Intro & Outro:  This was Export Echo, a podcast by Euler Hermes. You can find further information about the discussion in this episode here in the show notes. Subscribe to our podcast and please feel free to leave us a review.