Pan-African infrastructure and industrial development funding group, the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), has announced, in collaboration with the Africa Social Security Association (ASSA) and Morocco’s CDG group, the launch of the Africa Saving for Growth programme. This programme is under the auspices of the Global Africa Business Initiative, and is intended to mobilise the continent’s institutional savings to fund both long-term infrastructure and private-sector projects in African countries and regions.

“Africa-led investment is the most effective way to quickly achieve the scale of transformation we need while catalysing international support for the continent’s infrastructure,” highlighted AFC president and CEO Samaila Zubairu. “This initiative is about Africans coming together to put our own capital to work for Africa’s growth. By joining forces, our pension funds and financial institutions can unlock new opportunities, drive development, and demonstrate the power of collective action to build the continent’s future.”

In an analysis done this year, the AFC determined that African institutions, combined, hold assets with a value of at least $1.17-trillion. The members of ASSA (the representative body for the national social security funds of 15 countries) hold pension assets totalling $54-billion.

“This alliance is a pivotal step for Africa’s long-term savings community – bringing together pension, social security and other institutional investors,” affirmed ASSA secretary general Meshach Bandawe. “This initiative reflects the ambition of the African Union’s Agenda 2063: building a prosperous and inclusive Africa, underpinned by vibrant domestic and regional financial markets, connected by modern infrastructure and powered by shared growth.”

Africa Saving for Growth is focused on five specific “deliverables”. These are, in the AFC’s order – an open capital-pools database, a policy reform roadmap, a savings mobilisation playbook, allocation diversification models, and high-impact projects.

The open capital-pools database will be a comprehensive and market-accessible dataset on the savings held by African institutions (insurance, pension funds, public development banks, social security institutions, and sovereign wealth funds) that will be constantly maintained and regularly updated. The policy reform roadmap will provide practical suggestions, including prudential guidelines, intermediation vehicles and risk-sharing mechanisms, to allow social security and pension funds to invest in infrastructure and maintain asset-liability matching. The savings mobilisation playbooks will be national-level strategies to grow the formal, and shrink the informal, sectors of the economies concerned. Allocation diversification models will be routes to move portfolios away from short-term, low-yield, instruments that had the effect of concentrating public-sector exposure and excluding private enterprise. And high impact projects will stimulate African social and economic development by connecting people and countries, increase productivity, improve the quality of life, and ensure the sustainability of pension funds.

“African pension funds and institutional investors face the challenge of harnessing domestic savings and transforming them into a true driver of economic and social development, particularly through infrastructure financing,” pointed out CDG director-general Khalid Safir. “We work closely with sister organisations across Africa to align efforts, share expertise, and unlock the full potential of long-term capital in the service of responsible development.”