An alternative approach to infrastructure project development in Africa would be needed to address the significant infrastructure gap on the continent, International Finance Corporation (IFC) infrastructure and natural resources global director Sujoy Bose told delegates at the africainvestor (Ai) CEO Infrastructure Project Developers’ Summit, in Johannesburg.
He said current approaches to infrastructure project development within developing Investment was no longer the hurdle for infrastructure development, Bose said, stating that “there is currently more private investment available for the African continent than the sector in Africa can absorb”.
He argued that project development remained the most significant challenge to the development of infrastructure projects.
Bose stated that, despite the good work done to help advance infrastructure project development in Africa, it “failed to produce results on the scale required”, which was why a new approaches to project development was required.
“Project development has to be replicable, scalable and financeable for us to make a dent in the infrastructure gap in Africa.”
Bose noted that the IFC had observed positive results from countries adopting what he called a “wholesale and programmatic approach” to infrastructure project development. He stated that this new approach not only allowed project development to take place on a larger scale, but would also reduce the time taken to initiate reforms to investment and new infrastructure construction.
