SuperReturn Africa: Key questions with Mark Florman

What is your personal outlook on the importance of investing in African Infrastructure projects?

It is very important to direct as much capital as possible from across the world into African infrastructure projects and the reason is that, only through that, can we deliver better lives to millions and millions of people. We need to gather that capital together, organise it, ensure it and make sure we are more project ready than ever before.

What sectors of the industry do you think are key to invest in, for the sustainable growth of the African market?

The most important to me personally has always been education. What we are looking at today are more forms of communication, so data centres in particular. Also traditional infrastructure, railways, roads and so on.

How have you seen outlooks towards investing in African infrastructure change post-2020?

People have been much more reluctant, and we need to change and dispel that. We need to give confidence to investors globally and show that African investments are not as risky as many people think. It is a wonderful continent in which to do business. We can achieve great returns and great impact at the same time, in many good projects across Africa.

How do you see Africa’s investment landscape changing in the coming years?

The investment landscape at the moment is very varied, diverse. It needs conferences like this to bring people together, but it also needs leadership from the DFIs. I wish, if I could ask for one thing, is for the DFIs to move and work more closely together in a single body to agree where the great projects are and to underpin those investments for the rest of the world.