Moves – Big and Small in African Infrastructure (Minus Energy) – 3rd Qtr- 2025
With the return of the Trump administration’s “America First” doctrine, this Substack warned policymakers across Africa that the world had fundamentally shifted. This change was not a matter of degree but of kind. Last week at UNGA, President Trump intensified his rejection of multilateralism and global consensus. Even as Africa contributes least to climate change yet suffers most from its impacts, Trump dismissed climate action as “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world.”
To the extent that Africa could ever rely on external actors, in this environment, reliance on former “partners” is untenable. The Trump administration’s “America First Global Health Strategy”, Germany’s cuts to international aid and the EU’s failure to finance or “draw up a concrete plan to ensure the goals [of its Aid for Trade policy] were met, exemplify this new era.
To survive and thrive, the continent must continue to build internal economic resilience to both withstand shocks and cope with unreliable partners. Infrastructure is the backbone of any such resilience.
Each quarter, this Substack tracks major developments: new infrastructure projects, completed deals, and policy actions. The record is not exhaustive but is meant to spotlight successes, affirm African agency, and press the urgency of scaling further.
1. AFC Urges Africa to look inward at possible $4 trillion in local capital: To meet economic and population expansion needs, the continent needs to build its railways and expand power generation and distribution. The AFC notes, however, that “traditional sources of funding such as foreign direct investment and official development assistance are proving ‘increasingly insufficient’.” African governments are urged “to turn to an estimated $4 trillion in capital held by domestic institutions like pension funds to develop much-needed local infrastructure as external funding sources wane…”
2. Kenya will pursue innovative financing to extend the SGR: The plan is to securitize its railway development levy to raise $4 billion to “build a section to the southwestern Kenyan city of Kisumu and Malaba on the Ugandan border”. Kenya is reported in talks with Etihad Rail to operate the line “with Etihad Rail requiring freight traffic of at least 17 million tons a year to ‘justify a return on investment’ for a freight concession deal.”
3. Uganda Negotiates Loans to Finance up to 85% of its Rail Project: Uganda is negotiating with a slew of creditors: development finance institutions and export credit agencies to finance up 85% of the project. The remaining 15% will be financed by the government. “The 272-kilometre (169-mile) line is the first section of a planned 1,700 km electric rail line in the landlocked east African country. It will run from Uganda’s capital Kampala and connect with neighboring Kenya’s railway at the Malaba border point.”
4. South Africa Opens its Freight Lines to Private Firms: In a bid to boost efficiency as the state-owned logistics firm, Transnet, struggles to keep up with demand, the South African government “will allow private firms to run trains on its freight rail network… The firms secured slots across 41 routes, with the initiative targeting routes used to transport bulk commodities like coal, iron ore, chrome, manganese, sugar and fuel.”
5. Nigeria Secures $747 million toward its Coastal Highway: Nigeria’s planned 700-km coastal highway received a Deutsche Bank-led syndicated loan towards its coastal highway. “The entire project is expected to cost around $11 billion and be completed in about eight years.”
6. Boom in Sub-Saharan Africa’s Hotel Expansion: Africa’s hotel growth now exceeds global rates with its 13.3% increase. There are now “577 new hotels and resorts currently under construction across the continent, promising an addition of over 104,000 new rooms… Each new hotel development becomes more than just a business venture; it serves as an economic engine, particularly important with Africa’s urban population set to double by 2050.”
7. US EXIM approves $66 million for Data Center in Cote d’Ivoire: Cote d’Ivoire will build a data center using equipment supplied by U.S.-based Cybastion Institute of Technology. The project is intended to secure and improve the management of government data. “The World Bank estimates that Côte d’Ivoire’s digital economy could generate over $5.5 billion by 2025 and more than $20 billion by 2050, if both public and private investments are scaled up in five priority areas: infrastructure, platforms, financial services, entrepreneurship, and skills.”
8. Kenya Pursues $2 Billion Financing Plan for JKIA After Adani Fiasco: The Kenyan government claims to have contacted DFIs (AfDB, JICA, China EXIM, KFW and EIB) and the A to finance its $2 billion expansion of the Nairobi airport. “The airport expansion includes a second runway at the airport and a new terminal building.”
The wages of weak infrastructure is an ever-declining quality of life. Today the focus is on traveling across the continent. With the expansion in hotel rooms and growth in African domestic tourism – ease of travel remains beyond the reach of many. “Bad connections, high fees and strict visa rules hamper travel around the continent… [On} a massive continent that contains 16 landlocked countries, planes should be an obvious way of getting around. Yet flying between African countries is an ordeal. Passengers and non-human cargo alike have to contend with terrible connections, sky-high prices, and hostile visa rules and customs regulations. That hampers the exchange of goods, people and ideas.”
Africa’s inadequate infrastructure entrenches poverty, heightens economic fragility, and leaves the continent vulnerable to external shocks. Reliance on unreliable partners magnifies this exposure, as transport bottlenecks, energy deficits, and digital gaps prevent Africa from fully leveraging its own resources and labor force. The absence of efficient networks raises transaction costs, stifles regional trade, and keeps local markets fragmented.
Regional connectivity lowers barriers, accelerates capital flows, and unlocks continental markets. Implementation must be pursued not for foreign approval but because the alternative is continued marginalization. The continent either builds the arteries of its own prosperity or remains at the mercy of others.