LOOK BEYOND BRICKS & MORTAR

Key takeaways:

1. We should focus on how infrastructure will generate economic activity and create sustainable local economies.

2. Coordinating infrastructure investment around three key axes – stability, productivity, and economic growth – can help ensure infrastructure projects have a transformative impact.

3. Digital-first solutions for infrastructure coordination and management can enable scalability and maximise economic impact.

To shift Africa from aid to investment requires moving beyond viewing infrastructure as an end goal and treating it as a catalyst for economic transformation. It isn’t a theoretical concept; it’s practical, actionable, and gaining momentum in G20 policy circles through the country-led platforms endorsed in the Leaders’ Declaration, which was issued after the 2024 conference.

IT'S NOT JUST ABOUT THE BRIDGE

The conventional approach to building any infrastructure, such as a bridge, focuses on engineering specifications, budget constraints, and connecting point A to point B. In the end, you have a bridge, possibly the most beautiful bridge imaginable, but it is still just a bridge.

Stakeholders in infrastructure projects need to ask different questions: how will this bridge generate economic activity on both sides? What local businesses will emerge? How do we ensure the surrounding communities don’t just benefit temporarily, but develop sustainable economies that can actually pay for the bridge’s maintenance?

This three-dimensional thinking transforms infrastructure from a cost centre to a revenue generator and a job creator. When done right, infrastructure projects become vehicles for local economic development and skills building rather than isolated assets requiring perpetual subsidies.

Mission 300 is a World Bank initiative to provide electricity to 300 million Africans by 2030, but as World Bank President Ajay Banga emphasises, the end game is not only to deliver electricity, but what people will do with it.

The critical element isn’t just connecting a wire so people can turn on a lightbulb. Rural areas can use the electricity to power irrigation systems, or fridges, or to develop agriculture, and lay the foundation for small businesses, create jobs, and generate the local economies they need and the income streams that make electricity affordable. Infrastructure becomes self-sustaining when it creates economic activity that supports it. This approach connects the dots between infrastructure investment and economic development.

UNLEASHING AFRICA'S DIGITAL ADVANTAGE

Developing economies have jumped ahead in creating innovative solutions that meet Africa’s fundamental needs. Unlike developed countries, which are burdened by layers of legacy systems built over decades, emerging markets can implement cutting-edge digital solutions immediately.

M-PESA is evidence of this leapfrogging potential. By bypassing traditional banking infrastructure, the mobile payment platform provided financial services to millions who previously lacked access.

The same principle applies to infrastructure coordination. Countries can implement early-payment digital platforms, such as C2FO, without being constrained by existing bureaucratic systems, thereby maximising working capital efficiency and minimising administrative costs.

Recent discussions in Zimbabwe around Mission 300 demonstrate this strategic thinking in practice. Rather than simply connecting areas to the electricity grid, planners coordinate infrastructure with economic zones.

Agricultural regions receive infrastructure that supports farming and processing; areas better suited for industry will receive a different type of connectivity.

The World Bank is in discussions with telecommunications companies to attach data towers into distributed energy solutions in rural areas. This aligns infrastructure investment with natural economic advantages.

The beauty of this platform approach is that it doesn’t require a massive institutional overhaul. The pieces already exist, namely digital identity systems, payment platforms, compliance frameworks, and project management tools.

We don’t have to invent anything new; we just have to join the dots and consolidate fragmented solutions already available into effective, country-led platforms.

This modularity enables implementation at scale.

A single project can adopt platform principles. So can municipal governments, provincial authorities, or national development agencies. Scaling is then determined by coordination capacity and political will.

THE SELF-REINFORCING INVESTMENT IMPERATIVE

The shift from aid to investment reflects both necessity and opportunity. Traditional aid flows are declining while technological capabilities expand rapidly. This creates a golden window for countries to demonstrate investment viability through improved coordination and reduced capital dispersion.

The fundamental challenge isn’t a lack of bankable projects in developing economies because viable opportunities exist in abundance.

The concern among international investors centres on fund dispersion and tracking returns effectively. Well-designed platforms address these concerns through transparency and ensure capital reaches productive uses.

The aim is to develop economic flywheels, which are self-reinforcing cycles of investment, productivity, and returns that create value long after their initial implementation. Instead of fostering dependency, well-structured infrastructure investment enhances local capacity and establishes conditions for sustainable growth.

Success depends on collaboration between governments, development institutions, private investors, and local communities. The platforms provide the framework, but unlocking their full potential requires political will and private sector investment buy-in to coordinate existing resources effectively.