The picture you paint is a reasonably accurate one, and this is good news; this is what we all want to achieve, the private sector in time crowding out the DFIs. That's nirvana for all of us. However, there is no question that there is still a big gap where DFIs are needed. It's quite right that we should have what we call additionality guidelines so that, for every single investment we make, we must be able to justify that we're doing something the private sector won't do. It's really important. When you think about it in terms of Canada, those guidelines have to be enforced really heavily.
Let's look at the provision of long-term debt in Africa. The commercial banks do not do this. The local banks do not do this. That's what DFIs do, and that is clearly needed and is a huge gap. Commercial investors are not making investments in smaller businesses or setting standards on environmental and social.... I've talked about it before.
Our role is definitely getting harder, and I think that's fine. That's the pressure that should come on us to make sure we are going to a place like Ethiopia that doesn't have enough large companies and really grafting on those opportunities that might take a year or two to happen.
I can tell you that your big pension funds would not invest in two years to make an investment in Ethiopia or in DRC. They wouldn't have put capital alongside standard charter during the Ebola crisis. No one was investing in Sierra Leone during the Ebola crisis, except a DFI like us.
There absolutely is a gap. Is it hard? Yes, it's hard. Are returns hard to deliver? That's why you need great people to do it, but the role is still very important.