Principal Secretary for Economic Planning Boniface Makokha says that the continent already controls sizeable pools of institutional capital. Principal Secretary for Economic Planning Boniface Makokha AFRICA’s development agenda is not curtailed by lack of money but by the difficulty of directing available resources towards productive investment.
Principal Secretary for Economic Planning Boniface Makokha That was the central message at the Africa Capital Markets Conference that ended in Nairobi on Tuesday. Policymakers and financial sector players at the two-day conference said that Africa must mobilise more of its own domestic capital to finance infrastructure, housing, climate projects and businesses.
Principal Secretary for Economic Planning Boniface Makokha, representing Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi, said the continent already controls sizeable pools of institutional capital. Assets under management are estimated at $3 trillion (Sh388 trillion) and could exceed $7 trillion (Sh905.1 trillion) by 2040.
The opportunity is particularly significant outside South Africa, which accounts for about $1 trillion of the assets. According to Makokha, markets such as Kenya, Ghana, Morocco, Nigeria and Uganda are recording faster growth as pension funds, insurers, banks and collective investment schemes accumulate long-term savings.
In Kenya, for instance, retirement assets reached Sh3.17 trillion by June 2026, crossing the Sh3 trillion mark for the first time, according to the Retirement Benefits Authority (RBA). The figure was up 25.1 per cent from a year earlier. Government securities, however, still accounted for 46.4 per cent of pension assets, showing how heavily domestic savings remain tied to the sovereign.