Africa’s Next Asset Class: Water
By Rodrigo Manso, CEO, Mitrelli Group
Every growth story has a hidden variable – the overlooked input without which the numbers never quite add up.
For Africa, that variable is water.
At the recent African Union Summit, water and sanitation were brought to the forefront of continental strategy. Heads of state endorsed and launched the Africa Water Vision 2063 and Policy, formally linking water security to economic transformation, climate resilience, peace, and governance. The data underpinning this shift is sobering roughly half of Africans still lack access to safe water, and basic sanitation coverage remains below 50 percent. Industrial competitiveness cannot rest on that footing.
The broader context is equally clear. Overseas development assistance is constrained, trade rules are fragmenting, and multilateral consensus is thinner than it was a decade ago.
African leaders addressed it. Their answer is deeper integration – accelerating AfCFTA implementation, reinforcing regional markets, and expanding domestic financing capacity as a form of economic resilience.
But integration is only as strong as its infrastructure. And I would argue that infrastructure is only as strong as its water.
Industrial corridors without reliable bulk water cannot attract manufacturing. Agricultural transformation without irrigation is hostage to climate volatility. Urban expansion without sanitation becomes a public health and fiscal liability. In fragile contexts – from Sudan to eastern DRC – water insecurity compounds political instability and undermines corridor viability.
The financing challenge is immense. The annual gap to achieve universal water and sanitation outcomes is estimated at roughly $30 billion. In an era of constrained concessional flows, that gap requires what this year’s Summit signaled: treating water as an investable asset class – structured, revenue-backed, transparently governed, and de-risked through blended finance and public-private partnership models.
The question is not whether this can be done, but how.
Across Africa, well-designed water platforms are demonstrating that infrastructure can scale without sacrificing discipline. At Mitrelli, we work alongside governments to implement integrated water and sanitation systems that combine engineering execution with institutional strengthening and sustained operations. From Angola to Côte d’Ivoire and beyond, our “Water for All” programs are built as enduring service frameworks – expanding coverage while also improving the financial and operational health of the utilities that manage them. The progress is measurable – and built to endure.
This year’s AU Summit crystallized a quiet but consequential shift. Water has moved from the margins of development discourse to the center of economic planning.
Africa’s integration agenda under the AfCFTA is, at its core, an exercise in building resilience against external volatility. That resilience will be secured through infrastructure – and few assets are more strategic than water.