Panel, Conference Presentation
How African Sovereign Wealth Funds Are Accelerating Investments | Middle East & Africa Summit 2025
Milken InstituteBritish Robinson, Badr Drissi, Alain Ebobissé, James Mwangi, Aminu Umar-Sadiq, Samaila Zubairu
- Sovereign wealth funds in Africa are projected to transition from passive to catalytic roles, evolving to mobilize domestic resources, attract international capital, and form a critical component of future African growth and the capital stack.
- Strategic partnerships are expanding geographically and sectorally, including the Africa Finance Corporation extending models to East Africa, collaborating with Angola's Fisdia on gold and critical minerals, and partnering with Ethiopia on fertilizer production scaling to over three million tons.
- A shift in export strategy is anticipated, moving from raw material extraction to exporting semi-finished and finished goods, exemplified by plans for Zambian copper processing and a Moroccan aluminum smelter converting Guinean bauxite, with target exports to domestic markets, the EU, and international regions.
- Capital mobilization targets include Ithmar Capital aiming for a 2:1 to 4:1 private sector multiplier for every dollar invested, while ASIF members structure a GCC investment platform with NSIA and Ithmar Capital having issued financial LOIs and cooperation agreements signed in Abuja.
- Infrastructure development focuses on specific multi-billion dollar projects, such as a two-billion-dollar cross-border transmission line connecting Angola to DRC and Zambia, 830 kilometers of rail for resource conversion, and significant investments in hyperscale data centers in Lagos and a "Talent City" digital free zone.
- Project pipelines are being built through various mechanisms: Africa 50 scaling its development fund from $100 million to $400 million for green infrastructure and asset recycling; NSIA creating an integrated platform with the World Bank and IFC including viability gap and guarantee components; and Equity Bank Group structuring a full financing continuum with development banks.
- NSIA intends to expand existing successes into larger-scale operations, including expanding an oncology project from one center to four centers and 16 diagnostic centers via IFC co-funding, building a storage platform for cold and commercial warehousing to reduce post-harvest losses, and closing transactions on a DAP and ammonia plant with OCP.
- Ithmar Capital plans to diversify beyond tourism into manufacturing, agriculture, and agribusiness to generate jobs and foreign currency, replicating its joint venture structure across the continent while continuing to develop greenfield projects to act as a strategic development fund.
- Equity Bank Group aims to mobilize domestic savings to put "skin in the game," leverage local regulatory knowledge for government co-shareholding projects, and act as a broker for blended finance by engaging philanthropies and development partners.
- Future investment opportunities identified include industrialization through beneficiation, regional projects like a Nigeria-Morocco pipeline, asset recycling initiatives such as the "Africa 50 Mobility" platform with the Senegambia Bridge, and technology sectors focusing on AI and data centers.
- External capital flows are expected to increase as sovereign funds demonstrate catalytic capabilities in project preparation and execution, creating comfort for conservative local capital to join and attract further external funding.
- While global investors continue to seek double-digit plus internal rates of return, there is an identified need to educate the market on low default rates in infrastructure to bridge the gap between investor expectations and project de-risking realities.
- Long-term development expectations prioritize human capital and education with returns realized over a 20 to 30-year horizon, while infrastructure on electricity, power, transmission, and connectivity is viewed as the immediate prerequisite for unlocking economic potential.