It’s time for Canada to start competing for African capital

The direction of travel is clear: Africa is not only a destination for investment. It is becoming an increasingly important source of global investment capital. According to the African Development Bank, African pension funds, insurers and sovereign investment institutions collectively manage more than $2.1 trillion in assets. Even on a narrower definition, sovereign wealth funds and public pension funds alone control over $400 billion across the continent. Recent developments underline this shift. In 2025 alone, five new sovereign wealth funds were launched across the continent, including new investment vehicles in Botswana, Kenya, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Botswana established a new sovereign wealth structure to diversify beyond diamond revenues. Kenya approved both a sovereign wealth fund and a national infrastructure fund designed to mobilize domestic and international capital. Guinea is preparing to launch a $1 billion sovereign wealth fund backed by Simandou iron-ore revenues. Meanwhile, Angola’s sovereign wealth fund has partnered with international investors to launch a $500 million pan-African infrastructure fund, and the African-backed infrastructure platform Africa50 now manages more than $1.4 billion in assets to finance major projects across the continent. Collectively, these developments point to a structural shift: African capital pools are expanding, institutionalizing, and increasingly seeking global diversification opportunities. This is not an abstract pile of savings. Recent analysis suggests African institutional investors alone could mobilize roughly $1.1 trillion for long‑term infrastructure and industrial growth, yet much of this capital remains parked in low‑risk, short‑duration instruments rather than deployed into productive assets at scale. Other G20 economies have already clocked this opportunity and are moving to position their infrastructure, energy, and technology platforms as destinations for African pension and sovereign wealth capital. Canada, by contrast, still tends to view African partners primarily through a development lens. Our policy framework toward Africa still tends to assume that Canada’s primary role is to invest in Africa or provide development finance to African markets. That perspective is outdated. The more interesting question today is whether Africa will invest in Canada? Demographics and economic integration are reinforcing the continent’s financial weight. By 2050, Africa’s population is expected to reach 2.5 billion people, nearly one in four globally. The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is knitting together 55 countries into the largest free‑trade zone in the world by number of participating states, integrating markets worth about $3.4 trillion in GDP. As tariff and non‑tariff barriers fall, AfCFTA is projected to become one of the world’s largest economic areas, boost intra‑African trade, and attract billions in new investment. These changes are generating a new class of globally minded African investors and financial institutions. They are actively searching for stable jurisdictions, transparent regulatory environments, and sophisticated financial markets in which to deploy sizeable, long‑duration mandates. On paper, Canada offers all three, namely, political stability, a rules‑based regulatory environment, and deep capital markets, particularly in Toronto and Montreal. Yet the mindset in Ottawa has not translated these advantages into a coherent strategy to court African capital. It ought to. Attracting African investment into Canada is not simply about strengthening diplomatic ties or ticking a box on inclusionary rhetoric. It goes to the heart of Canada’s broader trade and economic diversification strategy. The country faces mounting capital requirements across several sectors, including infrastructure, the energy transition, housing, and technology. Federal assessments and independent studies point to multibillion-dollar investment gaps over the coming decades, with one estimate putting the shortfall for a zero‑carbon road transport system alone at more than $600 billion CAD by mid‑century. These are precisely the kinds of long‑term, income‑generating assets sought by pension funds and sovereign wealth vehicles in Africa and elsewhere. Consider two sectors where a more transactional Canada–Africa approach could move quickly from rhetoric to deals. First, green infrastructure. Canadian provinces and municipalities need to modernize grids, expand public transit and roll out charging corridors to meet climate commitments, but domestic public finance will not close the gap. Co‑structured platforms that pair Canadian project developers with African pension funds could channel African savings into revenue‑backed assets such as light‑rail systems, district energy, and grid upgrades. In return, African funds would secure exposure to stable, investment-grade returns outside their home markets, diversifying away from concentrated sovereign or commodity risk. Second, digital and housing infrastructure. Africa’s largest pension funds and sovereign wealth vehicles are increasingly comfortable with private equity and infrastructure funds focused on data centres, fibre networks, and affordable housing. Canada has an urgent need to unlock new supply in precisely these areas. With the right regulatory clarity and risk‑sharing tools such as credit enhancements, tailored tax, and listing regimes, Ottawa could attract African anchor capital into Canadian housing platforms, student accommodation vehicles, or digital projects, while also partnering at scale with African institutions on similar assets across the continent. To get there, Canada will have to move beyond podium diplomacy in three concrete ways. First, it needs a clear investment promotion strategy targeted explicitly at African institutional investors. That means dedicated Africa capital desks within Canadian trade and investment agencies, regular investor roadshows in Johannesburg, Lagos, Nairobi, and Casablanca, and a pipeline of Canadian assets curated to match African mandates and risk appetites. Second, Ottawa should leverage its own balance sheet more strategically. Blended finance vehicles, partial guarantees, and co‑investment structures can help de‑risk first‑time allocations by African institutions into Canadian projects, just as Canada has used similar tools to encourage domestic and foreign investment at home and abroad. Rather than treating Africa-focused development finance as separate from its domestic economic agenda, Canada should connect these instruments into a two‑way capital flow approach. Third, Canada must bring its private sector squarely into the frame. Banks, pension funds, insurers, and asset managers in Toronto and Montreal already have expertise in structuring long‑term infrastructure and real asset vehicles. They should be at the table co‑designing funds and platforms with African peers, not observing passively while competitors in Europe, the Gulf, and Asia move faster. Canada has spent years asking how we can invest in Africa. That was the right question 20 years ago. It is no longer the right question today. Around the world, countries are already positioning themselves to attract African capital from the Gulf to Europe to Asia. Canada can either position itself as a serious partner and destination for African capital or remain a spectator while other countries secure the deals. The future of the Canada–Africa relationship will not be decided at the podium. It will be decided at the deal table.