LiFT Africa: Crowding in capital, not just spending more

Swazi Tshabalala is a candidate for president of the African Development Bank and former senior vice president and chief financial officer of the bank.

Africa is not short of ambition—it is short of capital. The numbers tell a stark story. The continent requires over $100 billion annually in infrastructure investment. The trade finance gap is estimated at more than $80 billion. Add the growing demands of climate adaptation, energy transition, and food system resilience, and the figure climbs higher still. Public budgets are overstretched, and development banks, despite their importance, cannot bridge the gap alone.

But perhaps we are asking the wrong question. The real challenge is not whether we need more capital; it is whether we can use capital more intelligently.

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This is the core principle behind my LiFT Africa strategy. Rather than fixating on who pays, we must rethink how capital flows. It is time to move beyond aid dependence and begin structuring risk, preparing investable projects, and cultivating the confidence private investors, African and global, need to engage meaningfully.

The good news is that capital exists. Africa alone hosts over $400 billion in pension and sovereign wealth assets. Globally, institutional investors control between $2 and $3 trillion earmarked for infrastructure. Yet only a fraction of this finds its way into African sectors and countries that need it most. Why? Because the risks are poorly defined, transaction costs are high, and the timeline from concept to commitment is painfully slow.

We can fix this. And the African Development Bank (AfDB) has already laid the groundwork through innovations such as blended finance vehicles, risk-sharing instruments, and tools like synthetic securitisation. Under my leadership, we will not only scale these innovations but also expand them through partnerships. What works in one region should be replicated across others. We will streamline how we engage, reduce complexity, and accelerate delivery.

One major barrier to private capital is not hesitation; it is readiness. Many projects never leave the drawing board not because investors lack interest but because the structure is not bankable. Concepts may be compelling, but without commercial disciplines and financial rigour, they cannot be funded.

The LiFT Africa strategy recognises this and places project preparation at the heart of our approach. We will expand the Bank’s project preparation facilities, embed market logic from the start, and work closely with governments to align development goals with investor expectations. Shortening the distance between a good idea and a signed contract is one of the highest-impact interventions we can make.

Our pension funds and insurance pools should not lie dormant in offshore accounts while local infrastructure crumbles and energy poverty persists. Crowding in African capitals must come first. That means designing investment products that suit domestic mandates and building platforms that make co-investment viable, attractive, and scalable.

This is not an argument against aid. It is a call to use concessional finance where it matters most: to de-risk projects, crowd in private flows, and increase impact per dollar. Aid should be a catalyst, not a crutch.

Investors invest in execution, not promises. A more investable Africa requires a more investable African Development Bank. We must evolve into a faster, more responsive institution with clear pipelines, efficient processes, and a performance-driven culture. Trust is earned through delivery, not declarations.

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LiFT Africa is about more than money. It is about reshaping how we think about capital from something we plead for to something we plan around. It is about aligning African ambition with African financial ingenuity.

Africa’s future cannot hinge solely on the strength of government budgets. It must rest on the ability to mobilise all available resources: public and private, domestic and international and direct them with strategy, discipline, and transparency.

We do not just need more capital. We need better capital: better structured, better deployed, and better aligned with our goals.

That is what LiFT Africa is built to deliver.

Swazi Tshabalala is a candidate for president of the African Development Bank and former senior vice president and chief financial officer of the bank.