Africa’s infrastructure challenges stem more from weak project execution than from a lack of funding, Cameroon-based firm Horus Investment Capital said, pointing to data from its home market. The firm made the remarks at the Global Banking and Markets Africa 2026 conference in Cape Town on March 17.
Data from Cameroon supports this view. In Cameroon, 4,714.7 billion CFA francs in committed loans remained undisbursed as of September 30, 2025, according to data from the Autonomous Sinking Fund. An additional 975.8 billion CFA francs in authorized borrowing expired without disbursement, the same source indicates, with insufficient project bankability identified as a key constraint.
The figures suggest that while financing commitments are in place, disbursements remain constrained by projects’ inability to meet lenders’ technical, financial and risk-allocation requirements.
“Africa does not lack capital; it must strengthen its execution capacity,” said Ibrahim Oumarou Sanda, senior advisor and representative at Horus Investment Capital, during a panel discussion on execution delays and risk in African debt markets.
The issue is well known, and governments have taken steps to address it. In Cameroon, for instance, authorities have introduced measures to improve project selection. On March 11, the Ministry of Economy and Planning held a training session on Decree No. 2025/01081/PM of June 17, 2025, mandating project pre-selection, multi-criteria analysis and a program-based investment framework.
However, these measures have yet to fully address capacity constraints in structuring bankable projects required by lenders. In its 2026 Article IV Consultation with Cameroon, the International Monetary Fund said commercial bank financing alone is insufficient to meet the country’s development needs, highlighting broader financing constraints.
The constraint also applies across the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC), where infrastructure, economic diversification and climate resilience projects compete for limited bankable opportunities.
