Insights
October 2026
Africa’s infrastructure requirement is well documented. The African Development Bank estimates that the continent needs US$130 billion to US$170 billion a year in infrastructure investment, with a financing gap of US$68 billion to US$108 billion.1 The figures are usually read as a shortage of money. The evidence suggests the constraint lies at least as much in the ability to bring projects to completion.
A 2020 study by McKinsey described this as Africa’s infrastructure paradox: there is demand for infrastructure, capital available to fund it and a large pipeline of proposed projects, yet few of those projects are built. The study found that 80% of infrastructure projects fail at the feasibility and business plan stage, and that fewer than 10% reach financial close.2
The causes it identified are practical. They include weak feasibility studies and business plans, delays in obtaining licences, approvals and permits, difficulty agreeing how risk is allocated, the absence of offtake agreements and guarantees, and poor programme delivery.2 None of these is solved by additional capital alone.
Each of those failure points corresponds to a capability. Sound feasibility work depends on sector knowledge and realistic commercial assumptions. Approvals depend on regulatory understanding and stakeholder coordination. Risk allocation depends on structuring experience and on counterparties who trust the sponsor to perform. Delivery depends on management systems that continue to function after financial close.
For that reason, the role of a sponsor in African infrastructure extends beyond financing. It includes the operating systems, governance structures and institutional discipline through which an asset is developed, managed and handed into operation.
We look for opportunities where capital alone is insufficient, and where operational capability, institutional discipline and regulatory understanding determine the outcome. We assess each opportunity for the strength of its economics and for the capacity of the platform around it to execute. Where that capacity is missing, building it is part of the investment.
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