Infrastructure development is both a defining challenge and a standout investment opportunity for Africa and investors around the world. Africa’s future depends on the continent’s policy makers doing the right thing. That is working to create better governance, reducing crime, fighting corruption and delivering improved infrastructure.

The Africa Finance Corporation’s (AFC) inaugural Summit held in Lagos heard this from Jim O’Neill, economist, former chairperson of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, and creator of the BRICs and MINT acronyms.

The Summit hosted more than 500 leading thinkers from government, academia, business and finance who fuelled an energetic debate on both the opportunities and the challenges of the African infrastructure landscape.

O’Neill named infrastructure development as both a challenge and an investment opportunity for Africa and international investors. He used the example of Nigeria which is growing at 7% despite poor access to power. Decent power could boost economic growth to 10%-12%. “There is no reason why Nigeria should not become one of the G20,” he said.

Infrastructure in general has been estimated to have the potential to add an average of 2% to Africa’s economic growth rate over the next decade as investment is brought to bridge the current circa US$40 billion per annum investment deficit.

While international capital will be fundamental in bridging the investment divide, that capital will have nowhere to go if Africa does not focus on the development of bankable, sustainable projects, Andrew Alli, president and CEO of the AFC, told the Summit.

The AFC’s role is to accelerate the number of viable, bankable projects across the continent, creating the market for other forms of capital that will follow, and ultimately bridging the investment divide that exists. “We believe our core role comes at the earliest stage of project conception and development. By focusing on supporting project development and using our local knowledge and sector expertise to identify and mitigate risk we come in to transactions at an earlier stage than many investors,” said Alli.