Africa: To Finance Africa at Scale, Build Its Capital Markets at Home

What the report says

AllAfrica, citing a RootsToFoods Capital Series interview, reports that Wasim Tahir, a senior adviser at ODI Global and former director at British International Investment, argued that Africa’s long-term financing challenge is less about inventing new tools than about building stronger domestic capital markets and national development banks. The conversation was hosted by Ovidiu Bujorean, chief executive officer of OviBees Ventures, as part of Wave 2 of the series.

Tahir said development finance institutions can help attract private investors by using capital more selectively, then recycling funds through secondary sales once loans mature and reach a risk profile that institutional investors can accept. He pointed to a $30 million private-capital mobilization example from British International Investment and described blended finance as a way to change risk and return for a broader transaction, not just one isolated part of it. He also discussed guarantees, which can encourage local banks to lend to smaller businesses by covering part of potential losses.

The interview emphasized that many Africa-focused financing solutions depend on deeper local financial systems, including pension funds, insurers and banks that can channel savings into infrastructure and business investment at home. Tahir also highlighted the role of national development banks and borrower-led institutions in complementing declining aid flows and growing South-South capital movements. The discussion is part of an ongoing capital-series partnership distributed by AllAfrica and produced by OviBees Ventures.