The Infrastructure Consortium for Africa (ICA) annual report, published in mid-December 2022, and covering the year 2020 in the areas of transport, water, sanitation, energy, and information and communication technologies (ICTs), has revealed that Africa is suffering from a funding gap for infrastructure projects such as the Abidjan bridge, Dakar-Ndayane deepwater port, and Cairo metro, etc.
The ICA attempts to quantify the annual funding gap between the infrastructure needs of African economies and the funding committed by development banks, governments, and others.
Funding for infrastructure in Africa reached $81 billion in 2020 compared to $100 billion in 2018. This decline in commitment is due, according to the same report, to the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to the ICA, the shortfall was between $59 billion and $96 billion in 2020, and even more in 2019 in all sectors except ICT.
By providing these comparative statistics each year, the ICA has highlighted that the decline in commitments only widens the gap between the annual investments needed by African people and the actual funding committed.
In terms of sectors, the water sector has seen the largest shortfall (over $49 billion), for a number of reasons related to the lack of financial sustainability in the power, water, and sanitation sector. In addition, the water sector only received 10% of the funding, compared to 42% for the transport sector, followed by energy (29%).
In terms of financial commitments, 41% of funding comes from African states, as in recent years.