Infrastructure-funding gap yawns as African states lack strategic foresight
Implementing projects takes twice as long in sub-Saharan Africa as elsewhere, and private investors often must act as project developers, adding to costs, research shows
Abuja — Sub-Saharan Africa needs solid legal frameworks, increased private-sector involvement and better fiscal incentives to plug its annual infrastructure-funding gap of about $100bn, Boston Consulting Group and Africa Finance Corp say. The region’s governments have insufficient strategic foresight, political will and policy certainty, and numbers of adequately skilled people to improve delivery, the organisations said in a report released on Tuesday in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja. Financial systems need upgrading to be sound enough for projects, and nations must develop local capital and debt markets that provide lower financing costs, it said. Implementing projects takes "twice as long as in other regions", they said. "Private investors often must act as project developers, adding 10% to 15% to the project costs and lengthening the project life cycle." The region’s nations "lose as much as 2.1% of GDP annually to inadequate infrastructure," they said. Two-thirds of Africans lack ac...
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