We must rethink African financing on our own terms*

At Africa House in Davos, the most important conversation about the continent was not about how much capital Africa needs, but about why so much capital continues to miss its mark.
The reality is simple. Africa does not suffer from a shortage of capital. It suffers from a shortage of appropriate financial architecture.
The global financing models Africa has inherited were not designed for its market realities. Short tenors, high cost of capital, and excessive risk aversion are poorly suited to infrastructure-scale investments in housing, transport, agriculture, and trade.

The result is constrained growth and a persistent gap between ambition and execution.
As a practitioner on the panel, my intervention focused on a truth that is often avoided: Africa does not need sympathy capital. It needs smart capital — capital designed with African timelines, risks, and returns in mind.
Sustainable growth requires patient, adaptive, Africa-designed financing. Yet too often, local institutions and entrepreneurs are treated as recipients rather than co-creators of financial solutions.
Blended finance remains trapped in theory, while domestic capital pools — pension funds, insurance assets, and family offices — remain underutilised.
Risk-sharing mechanisms exist, but they are rarely structured from within African contexts.
Nowhere is this misalignment more visible than in sector financing.
In housing, long-term capital unlocks not just shelter, but jobs, urban stability, and productivity. In transport and trade, infrastructure finance underpins regional integration and competitiveness. In agriculture, flexible and well-structured capital determines whether Africa remains a food importer or becomes food sovereign.
The mission for 2026 is no longer food security alone. It is food sovereignty — owning the financing, processing, and distribution of what we consume.

This shift is not ideological. It is economic.
Africa must also change how it presents itself to capital. The continent must move from showcasing bankable projects to building bankable systems. Policy, capital, and entrepreneurship must be aligned. Risk must be understood in context, not imported wholesale from other markets.
Too often, what is labelled “African risk” is simply misunderstood risk, amplified by unfamiliarity rather than fundamentals.
The future of African finance will be built locally and scaled globally. Resilience comes from ownership, not dependency.
Governments have a critical role to play—but not as dominant actors. Their task is to enable: provide regulatory clarity, offer guarantees where appropriate, absorb first-loss risk, and crowd in private capital rather than replace it.
Capital markets deepen when trust is institutionalised and collaboration among African financial institutions is sustained.
What must change immediately is clear.
• Risk-perception frameworks must evolve.
• Tenor mismatches between capital and projects must be corrected.
• Collaboration across African financial institutions must move from aspiration to execution.

Africa does not lack vision. It lacks financing systems designed in its image.
The question before global capital is no longer whether Africa is investable, but whether Africa will be trusted to define how it is financed.

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*The article draws on remarks delivered at a public panel session at Africa House during the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland (Davos 2026), titled For Africa, by Africa: Rethinking Financing Models Adapted to African Needs & Realities (20th January 2026).
Moderated by Omar Ben Yedder of IC Publications, the session convened global policymakers, investors, development finance institutions, private capital, media, and Africa-focused stakeholders to examine how Africa can design financing frameworks aligned with its own needs and realities.

ADE ADEFEKO

Ade Adefeko is director of corporate and regulatory affairs, Olam Agri, an ex-officio of Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), and Honorary Consul of Botswana in Lagos.