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What Investors Look for in Infrastructure Investment Deals

Understanding what investors look for is essential for project sponsors, governments, and advisory firms seeking to attract capital to African infrastructure. The criteria are consistent across investor types — though the weighting varies by mandate.

Core Investment Criteria

Clear and Credible Returns

Investors require a well-defined return profile — including target IRR, dividend yield, or yield-to-maturity — supported by robust financial modelling and realistic assumptions.

Structured Risk

Risk is not a barrier to investment — unstructured risk is. Investors look for projects where risks are clearly identified, allocated, and mitigated through contractual arrangements and insurance instruments.

Bankable Project Structure

A clear capital structure with defined equity and debt layers, credible co-investors, and alignment with development finance institution requirements signals project quality to investors.

Strong Execution Team

Project sponsors and operators with proven track records in delivering comparable projects on time and within budget are a core investor requirement.

Regulatory and Government Alignment

Projects embedded in national development plans, with government support agreements and clear regulatory pathways, offer greater investor confidence and lower political risk.

Exit Clarity

Investors — particularly equity investors — require a credible exit mechanism, whether through refinancing, secondary sale, or public listing, within an acceptable investment horizon.

What distinguishes a fundable project from an unfunded one?

The difference is rarely the quality of the underlying opportunity. Fundable projects combine financial clarity, structured risk, credible execution, and regulatory alignment from the outset. Unfunded projects often have strong development rationale but fail to present these elements in a way that meets investor standards.

Strategic Insight

Investors do not invest in opportunities. They invest in structured, credible, and well-governed projects that happen to represent opportunities.

Frequently Asked Questions

What do investors look for in infrastructure deals?

Clear returns, structured risk, bankable project structure, strong execution teams, regulatory alignment, and exit clarity.

How do you make an infrastructure project attractive to investors?

By combining financial clarity, risk management, credible execution partners, and alignment with government priorities from the project's earliest stages.