As global capital flows evolve and development assistance dwindles, Africa finds itself at a critical point. On 28 May, during the African Development Bank Group's 2025 Annual Meetings (www.AfDB.org), senior leaders, policymakers and financial experts gathered to chart a new course for the continent's financial future – one based on mobilizing and deploying African resources and ingenuity.

Organized by the Bank Group's Resource Mobilization and Partnerships Department, in collaboration with the Bank's Making Finance Work for Africa initiative, this side event brought together leading African experts in a conversation moderated by Victor Oladokun, Senior Advisor to the President of the African Development Bank Group for Communication and Stakeholder Engagement.

With a 10 percent decline in development assistance and a 12 percent drop in foreign direct investment to USD 40 billion {in what period, and what’s the source of the data?}, the urgency of mobilizing domestic resources is pressing. The continent faces an annual infrastructure funding gap of between USD 68 billion and USD 108 billion, while attracting only 2 percent of global investment in this sector {Source?}.

"The real question is not whether the capital exists – it does. The question is how to mobilize it on a large scale for productive, high-impact investments," said Solomon Quaynor, the African Development Bank Group’s Vice-President for Private Sector, Infrastructure & Industrialization.

He added, "Africa is not poor. Our institutional investors – pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies, and even central banks – together manage more than USD 2.1 trillion in assets. If just 5 percent of these funds were directed towards infrastructure and the private sector, it would unlock more than USD 100 billion in long-term capital for the continent."

Partnerships and innovation

The event highlighted some innovative African-led models for mobilizing institutional capital. For example, InfraCredit Nigeria, a pioneering credit enhancement institution, has secured more than USD 300 million in long-term financing in local currency for infrastructure projects.

"The real risk associated with infrastructure assets is often overestimated. We have not recorded any losses on a portfolio of more than 20 projects in 12 sectors in eight years," said Chinua Azubike, CEO of InfraCredit.

Tafara Ethiopis, Vice President of the International Finance Corporation (IFC, the World Bank's private-sector arm) for Africa, emphasized the need to strengthen the bankability of projects through more effective risk-sharing mechanisms. "It is essential to calibrate the distribution of risks and benefits between the public and private sectors properly to make projects bankable," he said.

Speakers also identified obstacles to mobilizing institutional capital and proposed solutions. Boitumelo Mosako, CEO of the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), highlighted the central role of good governance and rigorous project preparation in lowering risk and improving investor confidence.

The Director General of Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Timi Agama, stressed the importance of building trust through regulatory reforms, investor protection and financial education.

Denis Charles Kouassi, CEO of Côte d'Ivoire’s National Social Security Fund, underscored the importance of aligning pension funds with national development priorities, saying, "All the income we generate is reinvested directly into the national economy to finance our services and boost growth."

A call for collective action

The Resource Mobilization and Partnerships Department of the African Development Bank Group is leading several initiatives aimed at mobilizing African institutional capital, including through instruments such as the Capital Markets Development Trust Fund, and strategic partnerships with regional and global stakeholders.

“Yes, we need governance and accountability. But as Africans, we also need to learn to trust each other,” said Mosako.

"The moment calls for vision. It also calls for innovation. And above all, it calls for action,” Quaynor affirmed, in his concluding remarks. “Let us pool our capital, our ideas, and our will, to build an Africa where infrastructure becomes a lever for prosperity, not a drag on it."