CEO Corner | Making Capital Work Better 

For much of the past two decades, discussions about African infrastructure have been dominated by a single question: how do we mobilize more capital? 

It remains an important question. The continent’s infrastructure needs remain immense, while governments across Africa continue to face rising debt-service costs, competing development priorities, and tighter fiscal space. Yet increasingly, it feels as though the conversation is beginning to evolve. 

The most interesting developments today, I believe, are not simply about financing more projects. They are about financing better outcomes. 

This shift was also evident at the recent African Development Bank Annual Meetings in Brazzaville, where much of the discussion focused not simply on mobilizing additional capital, but on mobilizing capital more effectively. With African institutional investors estimated to hold trillions of dollars in assets, the challenge increasingly lies in developing the financial architecture, risk-sharing mechanisms, and pipeline of bankable projects needed to connect available capital with Africa’s development priorities. The conversation is moving beyond financing gaps alone and toward the broader question of how capital can be deployed more efficiently, sustainably, and at scale. 

Across sectors — from energy and logistics to water and digital infrastructure — we are seeing growing recognition that infrastructure creates value not at the moment it is built, but through its ability to deliver reliable services, support economic activity, and improve quality of life over many years. In other words, the challenge is no longer only one of asset delivery, but of long-term performance. 

This shift is influencing how governments, investors, development institutions, and operators think about infrastructure. Rather than searching for a single financing model, stakeholders are increasingly focused on identifying the right combination of tools for each context: blended finance, guarantees, domestic capital markets, institutional reform, risk-sharing mechanisms, strategic public-private collaboration, and more. The objective is not financial innovation for its own sake, but creating infrastructure that is both bankable and sustainable. 

Equally important, I would add, is the growing understanding that financing alone is rarely sufficient. The strongest projects are increasingly those that combine capital with operational capability, local capacity building, technology, and clear alignment with national development priorities. The question is not simply whether a project can be financed, but whether it can continue to deliver value a decade after construction is complete. 

The stories featured in this edition of “Let’s Talk Africa” reflect different aspects of this evolution. From Côte d’Ivoire’s efforts to strengthen systems and long-term performance, to the changing landscape of infrastructure finance, to the critical role of water infrastructure in driving economic growth, each points toward the same broader conclusion: Africa’s next phase of infrastructure development will be defined less by how much capital is deployed, and more by how effectively capital, delivery, and long-term outcomes are brought together.