Leveraging the Potential of Sovereign Investors for Infrastructure Investment in Africa

African countries currently have 36 SWFs and 16 PPFs, managing assets of more than $400 billion. These figures are expected to grow further as more countries plan to create their own SWFs to channel much-needed capital into strategic sectors such as infrastructure. Indeed, African SWFs have become more prominent in financing domestic infrastructure. In Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, most transactions involve African funds investing in their own economies, while investment by foreign sovereign investors across the continent remains limited. To support African countries and their funds in facilitating investments by international institutional investors in sectors relevant to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), this study examines the landscape for sovereign investment in African infrastructure and outlines some measures that governments and funds can take to facilitate the greater involvement of these investors in infrastructure development.