Financing Africa’s $100 Billion Annual Infrastructure Gap Just Got Trickier
If Africa wants to leapfrog its infrastructural hurdles, then it must look beyond its own pockets to bridge its huge financing gap. This emerged during the Africa 50 general shareholders meeting held in Marrakech, Morocco on July 19. Africa 50 is an investment bank for infrastructure in Africa that focuses on national and regional projects in energy, transport, ICT, and water.
Despite an uptick in financing from the African Development Bank (AfDB), the continent still requires between $68 billion to $108 billion every year to build better infrastructure.
Chair of the Africa 50 board and CEO of AfDB Akinwumi Adesina told delegates that public funds are not sufficient in funding transport, electricity, water, and internet connection projects in a time when the continent is facing economic strife due to the war in Ukraine, global inflation and an acute 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.”
Photo courtesy of Karen282.
Source: Quartz Africa (link opens in a new window)
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