Africa faces a significant investability gap despite holding the potential to absorb vast global capital, according to Dr. Hubert Danso. Speaking at the European Investment Bank’s recent Global Forum, the CEO of Africa Investor (Ai) Group argued that the continent does not suffer from a lack of funds, but rather from a shortage of projects structured to attract them.
The disconnect between available capital and African development is stark. Global institutional investors manage more than $300 trillion, yet the continent’s development finance system only mobilizes $0.20 to $0.38 of private capital for every development dollar invested. Dr. Danso noted this ratio is far below the long-stated ambition of $10.
“Capital does not move because development is persuasive,” Dr. Danso told the Forum. “It moves when development becomes investable.”
He contrasted this with European instruments, where Council of the European Union President António Costa noted that public capital can mobilize up to €15 for every €1 invested. This disparity, Dr. Danso argued, indicates a structural issue with how opportunities are packaged rather than a scarcity of money.
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Dr. Danso explained that institutional investors function as architects of asset classes, not just providers of funds. Historical examples include venture capital ecosystems pioneered by the Yale University Endowment and global infrastructure allocations by Canadian pension funds like CPP Investments. These examples show that large-scale capital flows when structured, bankable investment frameworks exist.
To bridge the divide, Dr. Danso proposed two specific priorities. The first involves democratizing access to Global Emerging Markets (GEMs) risk data. Institutional investors require transparency standards to analyze opportunities for large portfolios, and making this data more accessible could lower the barrier to entry. The second priority is deepening partnerships between the Global Gateway, the European Investment Bank, the European Commission, and the EBRD with institutional investors.
Platforms such as Institutional Investor–Public Partnerships (IIPPs) could align public institutions with institutional investors to design infrastructure systems capable of absorbing capital at scale. This approach shifts the focus from simply attracting funds to creating the regulatory and structural environment necessary for capital to move.
Ultimately, the challenge for African development is not about finding more money. It is about transforming development projects into assets that are both bankable and capable of generating institutional-scale returns. “Once development becomes investable,” Dr. Danso concluded, “capital reallocates—by mandate, at scale.”
