We speak often of infrastructure in Africa; of roads that must be paved, power that must be supplied, and water for the people who depend on them. We talk about “closing the gap,” “mobilising capital,” and “unlocking investment.”
But pause for a moment: do we truly understand what infrastructure is?
Infrastructure is more than concrete and cables; it’s the enabling layer that determines whether economies scale, services are delivered, and lives are connected. Safe transport gets children to school. Working logistics get farmers to market. Reliable electricity keeps clinics running, powers equipment, preserves vaccines, and ensures consistent patient care. Infrastructure isn’t just an investment category but the physical foundation of every economy.
Yet despite that fundamental role, Africa continues to face an uncomfortable paradox: significant investment is needed, capital is available, and yet the systems remain incomplete. Why? Because capital alone doesn’t build infrastructure. Access does, and Africa’s access remains misaligned and fragmented.
A Finance System That Doesn’t Fit the Problem
African governments and project sponsors routinely face the same challenge: capital exists, but it is difficult to access, slow to move, and often inappropriately structured for local realities. Meanwhile, global investors, from Development Finance Institutions to sovereign wealth funds and private infrastructure vehicles, are actively seeking long-term assets to help resolve infrastructure gaps on the continent.
The two sides rarely meet in the middle. Why? Because institutional capital often perceives African infrastructure projects as too risky, citing weak preparation, unclear returns, and inconsistent governance. Even when the intent is strong, execution systems are weak. When risk is not adequately understood, it is either mispriced or avoided entirely.
The result is a kind of quiet stagnation. Pipelines fill with projects that never reach financial close, while investors retreat to familiar ground: logistics, telco towers, and sovereign bonds. These assets have value, but they may lack the appropriate levels of certainty or transformational impact.
We’re Still Designing for the Wrong Economy
At the Africa Transport Infrastructure Conference (ATIC) in July 2025, participants noted that much of Africa’s legacy infrastructure was built with a single goal in mind: extraction. Roads, ports, and rail were designed to move raw materials out of the continent, not to link regions, integrate markets, or support domestic value chains.
That legacy still shapes funding priorities today. Infrastructure is still too often designed around export logistics and centralised planning, not around industrialisation, intra-African trade, or urban service delivery.
But that approach is increasingly incompatible with the Africa that is emerging; one defined by urbanisation, digitisation, decentralised manufacturing, and a growing emphasis on regional integration under African Continental Free Trade Area.
To fund the right kind of infrastructure, we need finance systems that can accommodate different kinds of risk, timelines, and participation models.
GERD: A Case Study in Structural Determination
So what does it take to deliver at scale in a system not built to support it?
The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) provides a rare example of an African government mobilising large-scale infrastructure financing without defaulting to external templates or traditional models. Faced with international hesitation and geopolitical pushback, Ethiopia financed the project through a mix of public bonds, diaspora contributions, and budget allocations. This demonstrates that innovative and alternative forms of financing are applicable and fit-for-purpose in the African context.
What GERD showed is that infrastructure can be delivered without waiting for global alignment, if there is domestic coherence, phased structuring, and long-term political commitment.
The lesson isn’t that external finance should be avoided. It’s that project delivery depends more on clarity and control than on capital abundance. Well-structured, credible infrastructure that is competently managed attracts finance. Poorly structured infrastructure repels it, no matter how urgent the need.
Africa’s Untapped Financing Engine: Its People
Africa’s fast-growing, digitally connected middle class is typically framed as a market opportunity. But it is also a financing asset, one that remains largely untapped.
Private sector financing is often defined narrowly: pension funds, banks, institutional investors. But why haven’t we expanded this definition to include citizens or the diaspora? If people can invest in listed real estate trusts or unit trusts, why can’t they do the same for infrastructure?
What’s missing is the architecture. We need investment vehicles that allow people to contribute to, and benefit from, the infrastructure they rely on. Citizen bonds, pooled infrastructure trusts, and digital micro-investment platforms could all serve this purpose, if supported by proper regulation and credible sponsors.
This isn’t about replacing institutional capital. It is about creating deeper alignment between public infrastructure and public ownership.
Fixing Access: What Needs to Change
If we want infrastructure finance to function, we need to reconfigure the system around accessibility and not just supply.
- Prioritise pipeline readiness: Project preparation must improve. Investors do not back ideas; they back structured opportunities.
- Build aggregation mechanisms: Pooled project platforms reduce complexity and improve scale. This is essential for attracting large capital.
- Enable citizen-level participation: Design regulated instruments that allow local investment in national infrastructure, even in small amounts.
- Use blended finance with discipline: Do not subsidise broken projects. Use concessional capital to close gaps where risk can be priced but not fully absorbed.
- Establish credibility through delivery: Infrastructure finance rewards reliability. Countries that build a track record of execution will attract better terms, more quickly, from more sources.
Access Is the Strategy
Africa doesn’t need to reinvent finance; it needs to rewire access. Infrastructure projects don’t fail because the money isn’t there. They fail because the structures to reach it are underdeveloped, fragmented, or misaligned with reality.
Until the financing architecture matches the infrastructure ambitions in scale, flexibility, and inclusivity, we will continue to discuss gaps without closing them.
Access is not a side issue but the main constraint. And the countries that solve it first will build the foundation for the next generation of trade, industry, and urban development.
Ready to move from intention to implementation? Get in touch at Joseph.K@africaia.com
Aug 2025 Africa African Investment African Partnerships African Finance
