Visit of Meridiam Deputy CEO to the UCLG Africa Headquarters

On Tuesday 27 June 2024, the Secretary General of UCLG Africa, Mr. Jean Pierre Elong Mbassi, received Mr. Mathieu Peller, Partner & Deputy CEO of Meridiam, at the UCLG Africa Headquarters in Rabat, Morocco. This was the first direct contact between Meridiam and UCLG Africa. 

Meridiam is an investment fund interested in long-term engagement in all investment which addresses general interest, common good, with strong environmental and people-centered impact. Meridiam often engages in 25-year projects, worth 50 to 150 million €. Meridiam funds generally big infrastructure projects for which Meridiam plays the role of project owner or delegate project owner. It develops an ecosystem conducive to the effective implementation of impactful projects in the shortest time. 

Meridiam often intervenes to support developers or public authorities to finance the needed studies and arrangements to take their projects from the pre-feasibility initial phase to the level of fund-raising, contractualization and projects implementation. This requires project management, engineering and fund-raising capacity, all which Meridiam brings to its partners. 

Beside large infrastructure projects, Meridiam invests in urban services: water, sanitation, energy, waste management, public facilities, in exclusion of private interest investments such as hotels, private clinics, etc. Meridiam is not linked to any industrial groups, which means it allows its partners to benefit from the best prices of equipment or services using an open, transparent, and competitive calls for tenders. 

Meridiam is a French-based investment fund and operates in Africa through regional offices in Dakar (West Africa); Libreville (Central Africa); Addis Ababa (East Africa); and Johannesburg (Southern Africa).  

The global investor also works with UNCDF and the Rockefeller Foundation within the framework of an initiative called the Urban Resilience Fund. Meridiam wishes to develop its presence at the level of subnational and local governments in Africa, and found it appropriate to discuss with UCLG Africa as a good entry point to reach out to this target. 

To start this collaboration, Meridiam wishes that UCLG Africa identify five (5) projects of interest in its areas of intervention, two (2) of which Meridiam would get to a stage of fund-raising and implementation.