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Sources of capital on the continent

Development finance institutions

Development finance is critical to meeting Africa’s needs, and a slowdown in the global economy is making it increasingly difficult for the continent to access international financial markets.

Pension funds Insurance assets under management in Africa Development finance institutions Banks

DFI commitments by region

Unsurprisingly, out of the top seven DFIs by commitments (Proparco not included as does not report regional breakdown), the AfDB and the IFC have the largest commitments across all five African regions followed by the EIB and OPIC. West Africa received the most in DFI commitments at USD 21bn, followed by East Africa (USD 17.3bn) and Southern Africa (USD 16.5bn).

 
DFI commitments by region (USDm) Download the graph PDF (26KB)

Note: OPIC figures for North Africa are combined with the Middle East and therefore not shown in this graph. Proparco not included as does not disclose regional breakdown.

Most of the DFIs had a somewhat consistent allocation of their portfolios to the different regions with no significant concentration to any particular region. OPIC has a higher concentration of its portfolio invested in West Africa at 58% with no exposure to Central Africa. The DEG had some concentration in East Africa which constituted 39% of its portfolio. On average, 31% of the DFIs’ portfolios were invested in West Africa, 27% in East Africa, 26% in Southern Africa, 11% in North Africa and 5% in Central Africa.

 

Regional DFI portfolio breakdown Download the graph PDF (26KB)
Note: OPIC figures for North Africa are combined with the Middle East and therefore not shown in this graph. Proparco not included as does not disclose regional breakdown.

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Sources of capital on the continent

This section highlights and analyses the main institutional investors on the continent, including the sources of capital and the size and depth of these various pools of capital.

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Pension funds

Most retirement income in Africa is funded by its governments, but pension coverage on the continent remains low compared to the rest of the world.

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Insurance assets under management in Africa

The African insurance industry is largely underdeveloped when comparing it to the rest of the world, with its gross premiums written (GPW) accounting for 1.56% of global GPW.

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