The Minister of Public Works & Infrastructure, Dean Macpherson, has welcomed four major infrastructure investment opportunities which were presented directly to local and international Development Finance Institutions and Multilateral Development Banks at Infrastructure South Africa’s Development Partners Forum Deal Pitching Session, which he chaired in Sandton on Friday.

The Development Partners Forum was established by Infrastructure South Africa as a platform  to connect infrastructure project sponsors with institutions capable of providing financing, technical expertise, risk-sharing instruments and advisory support. Friday’s session was specifically structured to move beyond broad discussions by allowing financiers to interrogate live projects, assess investment readiness and identify opportunities for financing and partnership.

The support has also been extended to private-sector-led infrastructure projects and is aligned with the national objective of increasing gross fixed capital formation to 30% of gross domestic product, with private-sector investment expected to contribute 20 percentage points towards this target. The investment opportunities presented, located across different parts of the country, span major housing developments, aviation infrastructure, bulk water provision and energy infrastructure, with a combined debt-finance requirement of more than R53 billion.

“Friday’s session demonstrated exactly what Infrastructure South Africa should be doing: taking credible infrastructure projects and putting them directly in the room with institutions that have the ability to finance and support them. More than R53 billion in debt-finance requirements were presented to development partners across just four major infrastructure opportunities,” Minister Macpherson said.

“These are not abstract projects on a wish list. They represent the kind of infrastructure South Africa needs to grow the economy, strengthen basic services, unlock private investment and create employment. This is the type of investment we need to mobilise if we are going to turn South Africa into a construction site.”

Minister Macpherson said the Development Partners Forum formed part of the broader work underway at Infrastructure South Africa to build a stronger pipeline of bankable and investment-ready infrastructure projects. Infrastructure South Africa is already providing project-preparation support to more than 26 infrastructure projects with an estimated capital value of R148 billion, while 15 supported projects have completed their preparatory work.

Following Friday’s session, Infrastructure South Africa will facilitate targeted follow-up engagements between interested development partners and project sponsors to support
transaction structuring, explore financing participation, address risk-allocation requirements and agree practical next steps towards implementation.

“Government cannot finance South Africa’s infrastructure ambitions through the fiscus alone. We need to mobilise development finance and private capital alongside public investment, and we need to make it easier for investors to find properly prepared projects that they can actually finance. The measure of success for these engagements will not be how many presentations we hold, but how many projects ultimately reach financial close and move onto construction sites. We want to convert pipelines into projects, projects into investment, and investment into shovels in the ground and cranes in the sky across South Africa.”