Africa’s high growth and huge development potential hinge on building and expanding modern infrastructure, and private investors are more willing than ever to fund strong projects on the Continent under the right conditions.

This is according to experts who gathered in Cape Town earlier this week at the first Africa Investor CEO Infrastructure Developers’ Summit.

While only about half of the more than $90 billion in regional infrastructure needs are being financed from any source today, regional and global financiers face a scarcity of projects capable of being funded.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, through IFC InfraVentures was the lead sponsor of the event, aimed at spurring action to increase the pipeline of financially viable projects being developed and the conditions that support them.

“There is no question that Africa is rising,” said Jean Philippe Prosper, IFC Vice President for Global Client Services, in opening keynote remarks.

“However, Africa still faces many challenges–the biggest of which is infrastructure. Infrastructure project development takes time and risk, and investors will only commit the effort if the conditions are right. We want to encourage policymakers to build more capacity to improve regulation and institutions, and public-private partnerships that balance interests through appropriate risk sharing mechanisms.”

“Infrastructure investment continues to be the single most catalysing opportunity to boost industrial development and job creation in Africa,” said Hubert Danso, CEO of Africa Investor,

“There is dearth of engagement of development partners with project developers working on the continent, and so this week we brought many of them together to encourage ideas on how to increase the pipeline of future projects that can lead African growth into the future.”