“Africa does not lack bankable projects. What we lack is the resources to develop them.” With these words, Afreximbank President Prof. Benedict Oramah threw down a powerful challenge to Africa’s sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) at the 2025 African Sovereign Investors Forum (ASIF) in Abuja, calling for a radical shift in how the continent’s capital is mobilised and deployed.
He stressed the need for African institutions to lead on project development rather than waiting for foreign players. He announced that Afreximbank is willing to partner with sovereign wealth funds to help establish fully-fledged project preparation facilities.
In a keynote, Prof. Oramah criticised the prevailing norm where African institutions park their capital in low-yield foreign assets rather than investing in the continent’s own growth. He pointed to over $700 billion held by African SWFs, pension funds, and diaspora capital, much of it circulating in Western markets due to rating agency requirements and perceived political risks at home.
“We’ve been made to believe our money is safer with others than with ourselves.” He argued that if Afreximbank had followed that logic, it could not have done what the bank was set up to do. Prof. Oramah argued that the continent’s high marginal cost of capital is a self-inflicted wound: “By not investing in Africa, we fail to de-risk Africa”, which perpetuates the cycle.
He called on African SWFs and pension funds to follow the example of sovereign funds in countries like Malaysia and Saudi Arabia, which invest 60-70% of their assets in domestic markets.
Beyond infrastructure, he highlighted underinvested sectors with high potential, including intellectual property development in life sciences, music, and fashion. He argued that Africa lags in generating IP not because of lack of talent, but lack of capital and prioritisation.
The Path Forward: Project Preparation and Partnership
At the ASIF 2025 meetings, ASIF members launched two new initiatives: a joint investment platform to co-invest with one another across Africa, as well as well as an initiative to jointly finance project development pipeline for co-investment investment.