Africa has a $100 billion infrastructure problem. What’s missing?

By Linus Mofor, Senior Environmental Affairs Officer at the African Climate Policy Centre

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Big ambitions

While the infrastructure and infrastructure services gap in Africa remains high, there is increasing activity and investment on the continent against a background of an ambitious long-term plan for closing Africa’s infrastructure gap, called the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA), that African heads of state and government endorsed in 2012.

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What’s missing? The private sector

Of the $81.6 billion invested, 42.1 percent came from national governments, 23.8 percent came from China, and 24.1 percent came from bilateral donors, multilateral agencies and African institutions.

By contrast, the private sector accounted for just 2.8 percent.

Most of the investments were in transport (41.7 percent), energy (30.4 percent) and water (16.2 percent)—all sectors that are sensitive to the adverse impacts of climate change.

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The climate resilient investment facility

The ECA, the African Union Commission, the World Bank and the African Development Bank have teamed up to launch the Africa Climate Resilient Investment Facility—AFRI-RES, with initial funding from the Nordic Development Fund.

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