Another excellent and enlightening post @kiligirl! So now, sit back and ask yourself the question: "In Africa, why is it so very difficult to design, develop, finance and build infrastructure assets that provide services we all need?" All too frequently, I think, the answer is that the "soft institutional infrastructure" required (i.e., legal, regulatory, financial, political, etc.) is weak, poorly managed (or mismanaged) and, as a result, the perceived risks are simply too high to attract capital. Let's talk energy, for example. In order to achieve universal electricity access in Africa by 2030, estimates are that something on the order of US$ 1.0 TRILLION will be required--to invest in power plants, transmission lines, distribution, etc. Governments, donors, bilateral and multilateral financial institutions (i.e., public sector) simply don't have deep enough pockets. Attracting private capital is an absolute MUST. But, absent the "soft institutional infrastructure" that is transparent and well managed, it is an incredible challenge!
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Thank you, @beantownboy, and that's an excellent question which you've gone some way to answering yourself. It will take more than the "political will" we've been hearing about for decades. After three decades in various niches of this vast ecosystem, I'm starting to think that a radical transformation in how finance works at consumer level is the best chance for transforming infrastructure service delivery. What do I mean by that? You refer to risk - as we've discussed in previous posts, creditworthiness of utilities and other bodies responsible for attracting finance is critical. But utilities sell infrastructure services at non "cost-reflective" prices, often below cost, partly because they know their end customers can't afford more. It's also due to the lack of creditworthiness of their customers themselves, and until African people can achieve a different level of financial independence, not necessarily in access to a new quantum of finance, but perhaps in how they access finance, they will not be considered creditworthy in the classical sense. This is an excellent case for the development of cryptocurrency ecosystems where micropayments can become the norm, not some futuristic vision. So perhaps I'm advocating even bypassing some of the "soft institutional infrastructure" as unnecessary and non-value-adding middleman.