Africa does not have a shortage of capital to transform the continent, President William Ruto has said.
Instead, the President stated, Africa’s problem is the set of rules that decide where “that capital is allowed to go”.
He pointed out that research by the African Finance Corporation has proven that Africa has the resources necessary to lay the foundation for economic take off.
Speaking during the ‘Africa We Build High Level Roundtable meeting, convened by the Africa Finance Corporation on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York on Monday, President Ruto explained that what Africa lacks are organised investment and risk-sharing architecture rather than actual capital.
The Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) convened the event on the margins of the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly.
“African non-bank domestic capital pools have passed $2 trillion, and our pension and insurance assets have crossed $1 trillion for the first time in our history,” the President explained.
He noted that all external flows to the continent between 2014 and 2024, concessional and commercial together, totalled $1.7 trillion.
“Our own savings are now larger than other people’s money. Yet other people’s money is shrinking because Official Development Assistance has been falling every year since 2020,” he pointed out.
President Ruto announced at the meeting that Kenya would be a test case of how African risk should be assessed, declaring that it will open its default and recovery data to rating agencies and accept changes to the methodology if the evidence supports them.
He said financial rules are steering African pension savings towards Government securities rather than infrastructure development even where regulations allow greater investment in projects.
He pointed out that Kenyan pension funds hold 46 per cent of KSh3.2 trillion ($24.7 billion) stake in Government securities, but only 0.02 per cent in infrastructure debt.
“The rules allow pension funds to invest up to 10 per cent in infrastructure,” he pointed out.
At the same time, President Ruto announced that Kenya has boosted its equity investment in AFC by KSh3.25 billion ($25 million).
In April 2016, the President noted, Kenya signed a Host Country Agreement with AFC, establishing the financial institution’s first regional office in Nairobi and strengthening Kenya’s position as a financial hub.
On the domestic front, he explained that Kenya listed an infrastructure bond on the Nairobi Securities Exchange in May 2026, raising KSh3.4 billion ($26 million) with the support of the United Kingdom.
