2015 Overview

The Infrastructure Financing Trends in Africa 2015 report shows that $83.4bn was committed to Africa’s infrastructure development in 2015, a 12% increase on the 2014 total of $74.5bn.

This comprises nearly $28.4bn of identified African national budget allocations, while commitments from ICA members totalled $19.8bn. Commitments from non-ICA bilateral and multilateral financiers totalled $27.7bn and private sector investment of $7.4bn was also identified.

TOTAL FUNDING IN 2015: $83.5bn

SOURCES OF FUNDING

FUNDING TO EACH SECTOR

FUNDING TO EACH REGION

Other key findings from the 2015 report include: 

• Of the $27.7bn of non-ICA bilateral and multilateral finance, $20.9bn is from announcements of funding from China. This compares with $3bn in the previous year, though the average of announced investments from China over the 5 years to 2015 is over $12bn.
• 2015 saw reduced identifiable infrastructure allocations of $28.4bn by 44 African national governments, compared with $34.5bn (based on 42 countries) in 2014.
• Private sector commitments increased by $4.6bn in 2015 to $7.4bn, of which $7.2bn went to the energy sector.
• Commitments to the water sector have shown a declining trend since 2013. 95% of 2015 commitments are from national governments, ICA members and other development partners.
• There has been a sustained, but not entirely even, increase in commitments to the energy sector over the last five-years, attracting both public and private capital.
• Commitments to the transport sector remained broadly the same in 2015 at $34.7bn (2014 - $34.3bn) with the biggest contribution (over $15bn) from African national governments, followed by China ($9.8bn). ICA member commitments to the sector increased, from $3.7bn in 2014 to $6.8bn in 2015.
• Central Africa saw a substantial fall of 41% in anticipated infrastructure spending, from $8.3bn in 2014 to $4.9bn in 2015, attributed mainly to declining African national government budget allocations and ICA members’ commitments.
• ICA members reported infrastructure financing commitments of $19.8bn in 2015, representing 5.6% or $1bn more than reported in 2014. This includes additional data from the US (Power Africa, $307m) and the UK (CDC, $139m).
• Disbursements by ICA members in 2015 totalled $12.6bn, a small decline of 2.9% compared with the $13bn reported in 2014. Despite this marginal decline, disbursements have remained reasonably consistent over the past few years (2012 to 2015) averaging around US$12.5 bn.

This year’s report includes more detailed analysis of the processes and dynamics that drive (or restrain) the continent’s infrastructure financing trends. The report includes views from a wide range of stakeholders on these forces and how strategies are emerging and developing to address the challenges of infrastructure financing in Africa.