The paradox of African infrastructure today is stark. 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, said LavagnonIka, Professor of Project Management, Telfer School of Management.

In a statement by the Project Management Institute, George Asamani, MD, Project Management Institute, Sub-Saharan Africa, said that across the continent, governments are becoming increasingly sophisticated at raising capital. 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 US$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.

Recent data illustrates this disconnect clearly. South Africa, the continent’s most industrialised economy, has secured over $91 billion (R1.5 trillion) in investment pledges through the South African Investment Conferences since 2018. However, only $38.6 billion (R634 billion), just under 42 per cent, had flowed into the economy by March 2026. While investment announcements rarely translate fully into projects, South Africa’s conversion rates remain below global norms, highlighting persistent delivery challenges. McKinsey estimates that 60–80 per cent of announced FDI is typically realisedworldwide.

This reveals a critical constraint, a limited pipeline of bankable projects. Many infrastructure projects struggle not because financing is unavailable, but because they fail to progress through the complex preparation and development processes required to attract investment and move toward implementation.

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

These upstream stages involve far more than feasibility studies. They require technical and engineering assessments, environmental, social, and judicial reviews, financial and commercial structuring, regulatory alignment, stakeholder coordination, risk allocation, permitting, and implementation planning.

Ika, Professor of Project Management, Telfer School of Management, said: “The implication is significant: the success of infrastructure projects is often determined long before capital is spent on the ground.

Strengthening upstream project capability is therefore critical to Africa’s ability to deliver infrastructure at scale. Too many projects fall into the “lack-of-project-management-capacity trap”, where weak preparation and execution undermine otherwise promising initiatives.

According to Asamani, MD, Project Management Institute, Sub-Saharan Africa: “This 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. Yet one of the most persistent constraints identified was limited capacity for early-stage project preparation, from feasibility studies to structuring investable proposals. The lesson is clear: without stronger upstream capacity, even well-funded infrastructure ambitions struggle to move from commitment to implementation.”