Building Institutional Capacity for Infrastructure Investment

Why capacity comes first

Infrastructure is the natural home for long-duration African capital. Yet allocations frequently stall between board approval and first commitment. In most cases the obstacle is institutional readiness rather than pipeline.

A four-part readiness framework

• Governance: a board-approved infrastructure policy, delegated authorities and conflict management.
• People: in-house or shared expertise to evaluate project and fund-level risk.
• Process: due diligence templates, valuation policy and monitoring frameworks.
• Partnership: access to co-investors, DFIs and shared diligence consortia.

The role of collective structures

Smaller funds can rarely build full in-house teams. Collective vehicles and shared-diligence consortia allow multiple asset owners to pool expertise while retaining owner control over each investment decision.