On the sidelines of the 61st Annual Meetings of the African Development Bank Group, held from 25 to 29 May 2026 in Brazzaville, public asset recycling is emerging as a serious option for financing African infrastructure without increasing state debt. At the end of a roundtable dedicated to this issue, Alain Ebobisse, CEO of Africa50, explained how this mechanism could enable African governments to mobilize local resources while improving the performance of existing infrastructure.
Asset recycling is gradually becoming one of the preferred tools for addressing the infrastructure financing gap in Africa. Meeting in Brazzaville under the leadership of the President of the African Development Bank Group, who also chairs the board of Africa50, several African ministers, investors, and officials from international financial institutions discussed mechanisms capable of transforming public assets into productive capital. The objective is clear: to enable states to raise funding without further increasing public debt.
“The investment needs in Africa are enormous, and we believe that we must now mobilize much more financing for African infrastructure within Africa itself. We will no longer obtain as much external financing as we did in the past. Therefore, asset recycling is also a lever to help mobilize African savings to finance African infrastructure. It is an important moment because, as you can see, the global context means we are receiving less external funding, so Africa must take greater responsibility for itself…”
Alain Ebobisse, CEO of Africa50 – Cameroon
The objective is twofold: to generate new financial resources and to improve the management of existing infrastructure, whether roads, ports, airports, or energy networks. Africa50 also aims to encourage greater involvement from African investors, particularly sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, and, in the long term, the continent’s savers. However, for several African officials, the success of this strategy depends first and foremost on structural reforms.
“There are a number of elements for which we must be fully prepared. The first is, of course, the legal and regulatory framework, for which technical assistance would be necessary so that our various countries and beyond that, at the sub-regional and continental level can have harmonized legal texts. Why? Because a number of infrastructure projects are sub-regional in nature, as we are also moving toward greater integration.”
Hervé Ndoba, Minister of Finance and Budget – Central African Republic
In a context marked by declining external financing, speakers emphasized the urgent need for Africa to mobilize more of its domestic resources to support its development and regional integration ambitions.In Brazzaville, public asset recycling is now seen as much more than a simple financial tool. For African policymakers, it could become a strategic instrument of economic sovereignty provided that states harmonize their regulations and create an environment that is conducive to African investment in the continent’s infrastructure.
