adsAn accelerator designed to move women-led energy and infrastructure projects from concept to financial close has launched in Nigeria, with ambitions to mobilise $1 billion and scale 50 female-owned businesses across Africa over five years.
AFARA, unveiled at the J. Randle Centre for Yoruba Culture & History in Lagos, enters a market where the numbers are stark. Just 3 percent of infrastructure capital in Africa flows to women-led ventures.
Less than 1 percent of infrastructure project finance reaches female founders. Meanwhile, 600 million Africans remain without electricity, and infrastructure deficits are eroding 2 to 4 percentage points of GDP growth annually, with 75 percent of projects failing to reach financial close.
“Africa cannot wait,” said Dolapo Kukoyi, the energy and infrastructure strategist behind the initiative. “The continent faces a $2.5 trillion infrastructure deficit. We cannot close it without unlocking all of our human capital, especially women.”
Kukoyi, who brings more than two decades of deal structuring across the energy and infrastructure sectors, said she built AFARA after observing a persistent absence at financing tables across the continent.adsads
