In Dakar, Finance Leaders Call for Scaling Up Structured Finance

Sep 26, 2025 | Ecofin Agency

  • African finance officials and investors said the continent faces an annual $130 billion funding gap for infrastructure and must better mobilize $4 trillion in underutilized institutional savings.

  • Regional securitization markets have raised CFA1.87 trillion  ($3 billion) since 2016, but this accounts for just 2% of BRVM’s market capitalization.

  • Speakers urged more innovation in structured finance, tapping assets like public real estate, agricultural land and pension funds, while expanding green bonds and SME financing.

Dakar hosted the first edition of the Structured Finance Africa Forum on Sept. 25, organized by Invictus Capital & Finance. Ministers, regulators, bankers and investors agreed that Africa must scale up structured finance to close its chronic infrastructure gap and accelerate economic transformation.

Triple Urgency

Senegalese Finance Minister Cheikh Diba said Africa must close an annual infrastructure gap of more than $100 billion, refinance public debt sustainably and expand credit access for businesses.

“Financing needs continue to grow even as fiscal space narrows,” he warned, calling for “solutions adapted to African realities.”

$4 Trillion in Untapped Savings

Badanam Patoki, president of AMF-UMOA, put Africa’s overall financing needs at $130 billion per year. He said institutional investors hold $4 trillion in pension and sovereign wealth funds that remain largely untapped.

He highlighted Islamic finance as a rising tool, noting that before a 2022 regulatory framework was even adopted, it had already mobilized CFA1.4 trillion ($2.3 billion), or 7.5% of funds raised since 1990.

“The regulator should not be static but an architect of trust,” he added, urging agility to attract capital...read more on Ecofin Agency

Source: Ecofin Agency

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