African regulators and development finance institutions are working on frameworks that could unlock more domestic capital for regional infrastructural projects, according to Dr Corneille Karekezi, the Group Managing Director of Africa Re.
In the insurance sector, African insurers have between $380-400bn in assets under management, but little of the funds are invested in infrastructure projects across the continent, reported the online news platform TheCable.
Speaking as a panel member at the Africa CEO Forum in Kigali, Rwanda, last week, Dr Karekezi attributed this situation to regulatory constraints facing insurers investing in long-term projects. The continent has the capital required to finance long-term development if reforms are implemented to unlock insurers’ investments.
Separately, the African Development Bank Group (AFDB) has secured major political momentum for the New African Financial Architecture for Development (NAFAD) at the Africa Forward Summit, also held last week. African leaders, international partners and development institutions rallied behind a transformative pan-African guarantee mechanism designed to unlock investment, lower the cost of capital and accelerate job creation across the continent.
AFDB President, Dr Sidi Ould Tah, presented NAFAD as a bold African-led response to the inability to transform abundant liquidity into investable capital at scale. He stressed that Africa’s challenge is not a lack of capital, according to a blog on the AFDB website.
NAFAD, launched in April 2026, is a coordination framework designed to align African and international financial actors around four principles: subsidiarity, complementarity, coordination and disciplined risk transformation.
Nairobi-based African Trade & Investment Development Insurance (ATIDI), the pan-African investment and credit insurer, is identified as the flagship institution to anchor Africa’s continental guarantee architecture.
Dr Tah noted that although Africa faces an annual development financing gap exceeding $400bn, the continent holds nearly $4tn in domestic savings. Yet Africa attracts only 1% of global institutional capital and just 4% of global foreign direct investment.
Held in Nairobi under the joint leadership of Kenya's President William Ruto and France's President Emmanuel Macron, the Summit brought together Heads of State and Government, multilateral institutions, global investors and private sector leaders.