Infrastructure in Africa

The need for infrastructure improvements in the developing world is critical. Untold numbers of businesses suffer for lack of reliable power for industrial processes or because of it costs far too much to get their goods to the market. At the most basic level, millions of lives are threatened every day for lack of clean water or safe sanitation.

The challenges are particularly acute in Africa, where the continent’s development objectives are seriously hampered by poor infrastructure. In recent years, investments in infrastructure in Sub-Saharan Africa have averaged about $10 billion per year, equivalent to just three percent of the region’s gross domestic product and only approximately half of what is needed to support sustained economic growth. A paltry 15 percent of those investments have come from the private sector, and even then roughly two-thirds have been focused in the telecommunications sector.

IFC: A Unique Partner

IFC is well positioned to help countries in Sub-Saharan Africa develop model projects that can support private investment, thus allowing government spending to focus on areas where it can be more effective.

Investment in infrastructure projects forms a key part of the IFC’s strategy to support development in emerging markets. IFC has been active in the sector since the early 1990s. Since then, private infrastructure transactions worth nearly $4.8 billion have been arranged in more than 46 developing countries.Private participation in infrastructure can help people in developing countries by extending their access to basic infrastructure and by improving the quality and reliability of infrastructure services.

IFC seeks to encourage private investment in infrastructure through advisory mandates that create commercially viable structures. Increasingly, IFC’s advisory work and its investment programs in infrastructure are linked. Advisory assignments create investment opportunities in the infrastructure sector, with emphasis on public-private partnerships.

IFC’s advisory work across Africa is already developing PPPs in most infrastructure subsectors (rail, airlines, airports, ports, water, and power). In cases where public and private funding of services is required, IFC can work closely with our World Bank colleagues to reinforce policy initiatives that encourage private investment in infrastructure.

When infrastructure concessions are awarded to private investors, these mandates present opportunities for IFC to support the sustainability of the effort through an investment. IFC also strives to make more early stage equity investments in parallel with advisory solutions.

Project Examples:

Senegal: Kounane

Uganda: Bujagali Hydropower Project

For more information contact:
Houtan Bassiri
Communications Officer
Johannesburg, South Africa
Tel: +27-11-731-3179
Email: hbassiri@ifc.org