By Samaila Zubairu, President & Chief Executive Officer, Africa Finance Corporation
For too long, Africa has been described as a continent waiting for capital. Africa is not waiting for capital. Africa is waiting for mechanisms to finance transformation at the scale required to move from potential to prosperity. The continent has savings in the form of pension funds, insurance assets, sovereign reserves and bank balance sheets. It has minerals, energy, land, talent and markets. What it does not yet have at sufficient scale are the trusted systems that convert those resources into infrastructure, industry, jobs and prosperity.
This is Africa’s capital myth. We have been told that our future depends on attracting capital from elsewhere. But the more urgent task is to organise the capital we already have—and combine it with global capital in ways that build economies, not dependencies. Across the continent, domestic capital pools—pension funds, insurance assets, sovereign reserves and bank balance sheets—are estimated at more than US$4 trillion, according to Africa Finance Corporation’s “State of Africa’s Infrastructure Report”. On a conservative basis, these include at least US$2.1 trillion in commercial bank assets, US$613 billion in pension funds, US$441 billion in insurance assets, US$276 billion in development bank assets, US$164 billion in sovereign-wealth funds and US$518 billion in foreign-exchange and gold reserves. Yet too little of this capital is being channelled into the infrastructure, energy systems, transport corridors, digital networks and industrial platforms that transform economies.
The question is no longer whether Africa has capital. The question is whether we can build the mechanisms to make that capital work.
The question is no longer whether Africa has capital. The question is whether we can build the mechanisms to make that capital work—mechanisms that convert savings into infrastructure, infrastructure into industry, industry into jobs and jobs into lasting prosperity. That is the shift before us: from scarcity to agency, from waiting to building, from isolated transactions to investable systems.
The capital exists, but it is not flowing
Africa’s domestic capital pools have exceeded external capital flows over the past decade. Yet the continent continues to face an infrastructure-financing gap of hundreds of billions of dollars annually. This is not because African capital is absent. It is because much of it remains trapped in short-duration instruments, often concentrated in treasury bills, government securities or low-yield money-market environments. In many markets, pension funds and institutional investors hold assets that are too short-term to support the long-term development needs of their economies, while regulations limit participation in more sustainable regional projects. The result is a structural mismatch: Long-term savings exist, long-term infrastructure needs are urgent, but the mechanisms to connect them remain underdeveloped. This has real consequences.
When domestic savings are recycled primarily into short-term national government paper, governments face expensive recurring refinancing pressures. Investors often receive returns that do not adequately preserve long-term real value. Meanwhile, infrastructure projects that could expand productivity, reduce logistics costs, improve energy access and create jobs remain underfinanced. Africa’s constraint is not capital formation. It is financial intermediation. The continent must move from a model that assumes capital scarcity to one built around capital mobilisation. That requires a deliberate rewiring of its financial architecture.
The mechanism gap
Infrastructure is, by definition, a long-duration asset class. It requires patient capital—capital that can absorb construction risk, regulatory complexity, currency exposure and extended payback periods. Yet many African financial systems remain oriented towards liquidity, not long-term deployment. Institutional investors are often willing to consider infrastructure, but they face real constraints: regulatory limits, risk-weighting frameworks, limited local-currency instruments, weak secondary markets, insufficient project development and a shortage of bankable pipelines.
The answer is not to ask pension funds or insurers to take imprudent risks, but to build structures that make infrastructure investable within prudent risk parameters. That means developing scalable instruments that can translate domestic savings into infrastructure capital: infrastructure funds, credit-enhanced investments, blended-finance platforms and local-currency investment vehicles. It means using guarantees, first-loss capital, insurance wraps and currency hedging to address risks that private investors cannot efficiently absorb on their own. It means investing in project development so that capital flows not into concepts, but into structured, bankable opportunities.
Capital does not move because a need exists. Capital moves when risk is understood, allocated and priced. The objective is not to continue financing isolated projects, but to create systems that can finance building Africa.
Market plumbing and African solutions
The next frontier for African finance is not only project finance but also market plumbing. Africa needs a financial infrastructure that enables capital to move with confidence: credit-enhancement platforms, guarantee mechanisms, local-currency instruments, project-development platforms, standardised documentation, common-risk frameworks, repo (repurchase agreement) markets and institutions capable of aggregating assets at scale.
This is why Africa-led initiatives such as the Alliance of African Multilateral Financial Institutions (AAMFI), the New African Financial Architecture for Development (NAFAD), the African Union Development Agency-NEPAD (AUDA-NEPAD)-AAMFI Africa Infrastructure Financing Facility, the NAFAD Guarantee Program and the Liquidity and Sustainability Facility (LSF) matter. They show that Africa is not merely asking for reform of the global financial system. It is building its own.
NAFAD provides a framework for reorganising the deployment of capital and risk across Africa’s financial ecosystem. The African Development Bank (AfDB) promotes NAFAD as a pan-African systemic framework for deploying capital and risk across the continent’s financial ecosystem, with the principle that capital should be deployed at the right level by the right institution using the right instruments. AAMFI brings together African-owned and controlled multilateral institutions on a single platform for coordination, co-financing, risk-sharing and collective action. Its collaboration with AUDA-NEPAD on the Africa Infrastructure Financing Facility is intended to bridge the gap between project development and financing, promote standardised investment frameworks and facilitate blended-finance solutions for the regional projects necessary for the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA). The LSF is building market infrastructure to facilitate the emergence of a continental repo market for African Eurobonds. It seeks to create liquidity, reduce illiquidity premiums and improve market access.
These initiatives are foundational; they are the plumbing of financial sovereignty. They do not replace projects. They make more projects financeable.
Infrastructure as demand, strategy and system
Infrastructure is often described as an asset class. That is true, but incomplete. Infrastructure is demand, strategy and system. It creates demand because every railway, port, power line, refinery, industrial park and digital network pulls other sectors into existence. A railway creates demand for steel, rolling stock, logistics, warehousing, maintenance and industrial zones. A transmission line creates demand for aluminium, copper wires, transformers, substations, generation capacity and productive consumption. A port creates demand for corridors, storage, cold chains, shipping services, processing zones and trade finance.
This matters because Africa is not only a supplier of raw materials but also the future market for the strategic minerals and raw materials the world needs. The copper required for Africa’s grids and transmission lines should anchor copper processing and cable manufacturing on the continent, not just for Africa but for the entire globe. The aluminium required for power systems, rail, transport and construction should support local transformation from bauxite to alumina and aluminium products. The steel required for rail corridors, ports, bridges, pipelines, industrial parks and housing should create demand for African iron ore, energy and manufacturing capacity.
Infrastructure creates offtake. Offtake creates industry. Industry creates jobs. And jobs create prosperity.
Infrastructure creates offtake. Offtake creates industry. Industry creates jobs. And jobs create prosperity. That is why infrastructure must be financed as an economic system, not as isolated assets. But infrastructure is also strategy.
We are entering a world in which supply chains are being reconfigured. The old model of “just in time”, built mainly around cost efficiency, is giving way to a new imperative of “just in case”, built around resilience, security and diversification. For governments and corporations alike, competitiveness will no longer be measured only by the lowest-cost supply chain but also by the most secure, diversified and resilient one.
This is why Africa matters, not as a peripheral raw-material supplier, but as a strategic partner for integrated value chains to support resilient supply chains. Africa has many of the conditions the new emerging defence, energy and digital future requires: high-grade iron ore, strategic minerals, rare-earth potential, abundant renewable energy, natural gas, young labour markets, growing domestic demand and proximity to Europe, the Gulf and key Atlantic and Indian Ocean trade routes. These are essential conditions for supply-chain diversification and resilience.
The global economy increasingly requires copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt, graphite, phosphates and rare-earth elements for clean energy, battery storage, food security, renewables and grid networks. The International Energy Agency’s (IEA’s) “2025 Critical Minerals Outlook” highlights both growing demand and concentration risks in these markets. Europe has also placed secure, sustainable access to critical raw materials at the centre of its industrial and strategic agenda, seeking to reduce dependence on concentrated suppliers.
For Europe, North America, the Gulf and Asia, the question should no longer be whether Africa can supply raw materials. The more important question is whether Africa can become a platform for processing and manufacturing and a source of resilient industrial supply chains. Green steel, aluminium, copper cables, battery materials, fertilisers, refined fuels, industrial components and defence-related supply chains should not be built solely around distant, concentrated production hubs. They should be diversified across regions with resources, energy, markets, domestic capital pools and institutions capable of execution. Africa can be one of those regions.
This is especially important for Europe’s security, competitiveness and resilience. Europe’s rearmament, energy transition and industrial renewal will require secure access to steel, aluminium, copper, rare earths and other critical minerals. Africa has the resources. It has the energy potential. It has the market. And increasingly, it has the institutions capable of turning these advantages into investable platforms.
The choice before Africa is therefore clear. We can continue exporting raw materials and importing finished goods—exporting jobs and importing inflation. Or we can build the infrastructure, processing capacity and industrial platforms that allow value to be captured and retained on the continent. The future will not belong to regions that merely possess resources. It will belong to regions that can organise resources, capital, infrastructure and markets into systems that produce. Africa is not only where the resources are. Africa is where the market will be.
Project development as catalytic capital
Project development is central to Africa’s transformation. Catalytic capital is often described as concessional or risk-bearing finance. But in Africa’s infrastructure context, its most powerful form is project-development capital: the early risk capital that turns ambition into bankability. It is the capital that enters before a project is obvious. Before lenders are ready. Before institutional investors are comfortable. Before the market fully understands the opportunity. It is the capital that does the hard work: feasibility, structuring, permits, concessions, offtake, government alignment, environmental and social standards, risk mitigation and partner mobilisation.
This is how Africa Finance Corporation has built its distinctive role. AFC does not simply wait for bankable projects to arrive. We make them bankable.
This is how Africa Finance Corporation has built its distinctive role. AFC does not simply wait for bankable projects to arrive. We make them bankable. We take early project-development risk and structure complexity into investable assets, then mobilise partners into projects that can be financed, built and scaled. In that sense, AFC’s first-loss contribution is not only financial. It is developmental. It is institutional. It is the willingness to stand at the front of the risk curve so that others can come in behind us with confidence. That is catalytic capital in practice.
In Ghana, we played a lead role in the development and financing of the Cenpower Kpone Independent Power Plant (KIPP), a landmark 350-megawatt (MW) power project in which AFC was the largest shareholder in the development company. In Cabo Verde, AFC supported Cabeólica, the first commercial-scale, privately financed, public-private partnership wind farm in sub-Saharan Africa; more recently, AFC’s catalytic bridge financing helped enable the expansion of the Cabeólica Wind Farm and Battery Energy Storage System. In Djibouti, AFC led the development of the country’s first privately financed independent power project—a 60MW wind farm—taking it from concept to bankability, including securing the power-purchase agreement, implementation agreement, government support and risk mitigation needed to bring private capital into a pioneering renewable-energy project. In Gabon, ARISE IIP’s Nkok Special Economic Zone (SEZ)—Africa’s first certified carbon-neutral industrial zone—has shown how industrial infrastructure can create local value chains. It has transformed raw-material processing, attracted investors, created jobs and demonstrated that Africa can build industrial ecosystems that are both commercially viable and environmentally responsible. And in the Lobito Corridor, AFC is developing one of the continent’s most strategic infrastructure platforms: an 830-kilometre greenfield rail corridor linking the Copperbelt to the Atlantic through Angola, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The corridor is supported by a broad coalition, including the African Development Bank, the European Commission (EC), the United States’ Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII) and Italy’s Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP) under the Mattei Plan. The European Commission has described the broader Lobito Corridor flagship as including greenfield rail, DRC rail rehabilitation, trade facilitation, renewable energy, jobs and critical raw-material value chains. This is not simply a railway. It is an industrial corridor. A logistics platform. A mineral-processing opportunity. A trade route. A market-making system for copper, cobalt, agriculture, energy and regional value chains. That is the power of project development. Done properly, it not only finances infrastructure but also creates the conditions for markets to emerge.
The Africa we build
This shift is no longer theoretical. It is beginning to shape policy, investment and institutional conversations across the continent.
At The Africa We Build Summit 2026 in Nairobi this April, which convened heads of state, governments, institutional investors and business leaders, the discussion moved decisively beyond whether Africa has capital. The central question became how that capital could be organised, protected and deployed into investible corridors, industrial ecosystems and productive infrastructure. The conversation reflected a new impatience with inherited assumptions. It was not a discussion about Africa’s potential in the abstract. It was a discussion about execution: how to mobilise domestic capital, how to de-risk investments, how to build project-development pipelines, how to create market plumbing and how to ensure that infrastructure becomes the engine of industrialisation.
Africa does not need more declarations that infrastructure matters. It needs mechanisms that make infrastructure financeable. It needs pension capital to meet infrastructure platforms. It needs guarantees to meet local-currency markets. It needs project development to meet institutional investors. It needs corridors to meet industrial demand. It needs African financial institutions to coordinate at scale. This is the Africa we must build: not a continent waiting for capital, but a continent organising capital; not a continent defined by financing gaps, but a continent building investable systems.
Policy is decisive
Financial innovation alone is not enough. Policy and regulation are decisive in shaping whether capital can move. Governments must create enabling environments through stable policy regimes, credible regulation, transparent procurement and institutions capable of giving investors confidence over long time horizons. This includes allowing pension funds, insurance companies and institutional investors to allocate capital to infrastructure within prudent limits beyond national borders. It requires local-currency capital markets that can reduce currency mismatches. It requires project-development partnerships that turn public priorities into bankable assets, as well as the privatisation and listing of already-built assets to deepen capital markets. It requires risk-sharing mechanisms that crowd in private investment without undermining financial stability.
In many countries, regulatory reforms have already created space for pension funds and institutional investors to allocate to alternative assets. But allocations have not kept pace at the required scale. This reflects a trust deficit as much as a regulatory one. Investors need more than permission to invest. They need credible instruments, visible pipelines, transparent governance, appropriate credit enhancement and a track record of performance. That is the work ahead: not merely changing rules but building confidence.
The task ahead
The capital myth has lasted too long. Africa is not poor in capital. It is rich in resources, rich in demand, rich in ambition and rich in possibility. What we must now build are the mechanisms that convert that possibility into prosperity. The task is urgent. We must build the market plumbing that allows capital to move and reside in Africa, not just pass through Africa. We must build the platforms that make projects investable. We must build the corridors that connect resources to markets. We must build the industries that turn minerals into value and create jobs. And we must build the confidence that allows African and global capital to work together at scale.
For too long, Africa has exported raw materials, exported jobs and imported inflation. That must change. The future will not be built by waiting for better conditions. The future will be built by building now. By organising our capital. By developing our projects. By financing our infrastructure. By processing our minerals. By creating our own demand and jobs for a growing population. By turning potential into prosperity.
This is the Africa we must build. Not tomorrow. Not in another generation. Now. Because the future our children will inherit is not the one we hope for. It is the one we build.
Samaila Zubairu has been a leading advocate for African value creation, industrialization, and job creation through transformative infrastructure investment for over three decades. As President and CEO of Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) for the past seven years, Mr. Zubairu has overseen a doubling of country membership, a tripling of investments (including the continent’s largest renewable energy acquisition) and more than a tripling of profits by year-end 2024.
Under his leadership, AFC has earned multiple accolades, including Pan-African Champion at the 2024 Africa CEO Forum Awards, Financial Adviser of the Year at the 2024 IJ Investor Awards, Local Impact Champion in 2023, Equity Deal of the Year, and DFI of the Year for Europe & Africa. Mr. Zubairu was also named African CEO of the Year by AsiaOne Magazine.
Previously, Mr. Zubairu served as the pioneer Chief Financial Officer of Dangote Cement Plc, where he launched Africa’s largest syndicated project finance facility. At Africapital Management Limited, he co-developed the Nigerian Infrastructure Investment Fund.
Mr. Zubairu chairs the Alliance for African Multilateral Financial Institutions (AAMFI) and co-chairs the World Economic Forum’s Network to Mobilize Clean Energy Investment in EMDEs. He is an Eisenhower Fellow and holds a BSc in Accounting from Ahmadu Bello University.