PAIDF › About Us

The Pan African Infrastructure Development Fund is an African initiative established to invest in infrastructure projects across the whole of Africa. It believes that adequate and well-functioning infrastructure is essential for products to be globally competitive. It also believes that world class infrastructure is essential for economies as it will help them achieve sustainable development.

Infrastructure is the key to achieving the Millennium Development Goals, such as eradicating poverty and hunger, providing access to safe drinking water and environmental sustainability.

Also, Africa has the highest number of countries with no access to the coast which means that it has to spend up to three times as much as developed countries getting goods to the market.
As a result, more than any other continent, Africa has a great need for developing its infrastructure such as roads, electrification, clean water and railways.

The PAIDF supports the notion of Africa solving its own problems. The continent needs to end the donor-recipient relationship that has endured since colonial times and build a new future for itself.

The PAIDF sources good projects across the entire continent, but ensures that acceptable standards of governance generally apply in the countries where it is considering to invest. It also prioritises projects that are regional which have the potential to generate  greater co-operation and cross border interaction.

The investment focus is on Public Private Partnerships (PPP’s) which have emerged as one of the best ways to foster development. Public private partnerships provide the fund with a proven way of bringing private sector skills, technology and management together with the public sector type projects and achieve good financial returns.

What sets the PAIDF apart from other initiative in the market is that it is providing mostly long- term (15-years) equity financing. This means that it owns shares in the companies running the projects, rather than lending them money (debt financing).

The PAIDF targets investment that can generate cash flow as well as long-term capital appreciation. However, the fund also ensures that it will be able to exit the investment at an appropriate time and in a suitable manner, such as selling the business or listing it on a stock exchange.