Bridging Africa’s $100bn infrastructure gap harder

Africa must turn outside of its own resources to close the vast finance gap if it is to overcome its infrastructure barriers. This came up on July 19 in Marrakech, Morocco, at the general shareholders’ meeting of Africa 50.

Africa 50 is an infrastructure investment bank with a focus on national and regional energy, transportation, ICT, and water projects. The African Development Bank (AfDB) has increased its funding, but the continent still needs between $68 billion and $108 billion annually to improve its infrastructure.

Akinwumi Adesina, CEO of AfDB and chair of the Africa 50 board, told attendees that public funding is insufficient to support projects for transportation, electricity, water, and internet connectivity at a time when the continent is grappling with economic hardship due to the conflict in Ukraine, global inflation, and a severe dollar shortage.

“Public funds will not be sufficient in these challenging times. We have to look for additional capital from development partners, the private sector and institutional investors.”