Enhancing policy, legal and regulatory environment for infrastructure financing in Africa : Dakar financing Summit, 14-15 June 2014

Abstract

Infrastructure affects growth in two main ways directly, through physical capital accumulation and indirectly through improvements in productivity. At the microeconomic level, investment in infrastructure enhances private activity by lowering the cost of production and opening new markets, and presenting new production and trade opportunities. Africa is making steady progress in improving its infrastructure. However, several obstacles have to be tackled before Africa can fully harness its domestic resource potential for infrastructure development. This includes: divergence in legal systems between countries; inadequate technical capacity; lack of transparency in procurement and tendering processes; political instability and insecurity in some parts of the continent, and inadequate resources for regional institutions to effectively play their expected role in infrastructure development, among others.