Experts: Africa’s Infrastructure Opportunity Depends on Closing Execution Gap

Stories by Emma Okonji

Experts in project management have said Africa’s infrastructure opportunity will depend on closing the execution gap in order to translate capital into meaningful delivery of projects.

A professor of Project Management, Telfer School of Management, Lavagnon Ika, said the paradox of African infrastructure today is stark. According to him, while the funding gap continues to dominate policy discourse, it is the execution gap, or more precisely, the challenge of translating capital into delivery, that is increasingly shaping development outcomes in Africa.

Also, the Managing Director, sub-Saharan Africa at Project Management Institute (PMI), George Asamani, in a statement released by the institute, stated that across the continent, governments were becoming increasingly sophisticated at raising capital.

According to him, investment conferences are attracting global attention, new financing vehicles are emerging, and ambitious infrastructure programmes are being announced with growing frequency. While this progress reflects growing ambition across the continent, it should not obscure the scale of Africa’s remaining infrastructure gap.

The African Development Bank estimates the continent’s infrastructure financing needs at approximately $400 billion per year. The challenge is no longer solely about raising capital but also about ensuring that investment commitments translate into well-prepared, execution-ready, and bankable projects.

The former Swiss Credit CEO, Tidjane Thiam, recently argued that global investors were actively seeking greater exposure to Africa, drawn by its long-term growth potential. He said the real bottleneck would depend on connecting that capital with bankable opportunities through stronger project preparation, advisory support, and financial intermediation.

Asamani further said: “The challenge is already visible across major continental infrastructure initiatives. The first phase of the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA) delivered significant gains, including over 16,000 kilometres of roads and expanded digital and energy connectivity across Africa.”