Pension funds key to unlocking Africa’s infrastructure funding

Ghana’s minister of finance has called on global pension funds to help meet Africa’s vast infrastructure needs, easing the funding burden which has seen several African countries load up on unsustainable levels of expensive dollar-denominated debt.

The African Development Bank estimates that Africa’s infrastructure needs are between $130 billion and $170 billion a year; however, financing for African infrastructure currently falls short by between $68 billion and $108 billion a year.     

“The question we need to confront is how do we get appropriate financing to be able to do that,” says Ghana’s minister of finance Ken Ofori-Atta.