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Your Excellencies, Distinguished Heads of State and Government, Your Excellencies, Fellow Ministers, Your Excellency, Ms Lerato Mataboge, African Union Commissioner for Infrastructure, Energy and Digitisation, Your Excellency, Ms Nardos Bekele-Thomas, Chief Executive Officer of the African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD), Distinguished Representatives of our partner institutions, Delegates and Senior Officials from PICI Member States and Regional Economic Communities, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good Day! Let me take this opportunity to welcome you to this Inter-Ministerial Meeting of the Presidential Infrastructure Champion Initiative (PICI), which is both timely and important in advancing PICI's work. I wish to convey the warm greetings of His Excellency, President Cyril Ramaphosa, President of the Republic of South Africa and Chairperson of PICI, who is unable to join us today due to prior official commitments. We have gathered here with an important purpose – to measure ourselves against the promise we made to our people: that political leadership, sustained cooperation, and clear action will deliver on infrastructure projects on the Continent, including the roads, rails, ports and digital links that bind our continent into a single and thriving economic space. It is against this background that this Roundtable will hopefully take stock of the achievements and challenges of PICI projects to date, assess their impact on regional integration and reaffirm the commitment of Heads of State and key stakeholders to the PICI and the broader infrastructure development agenda. Excellencies, Fourteen years after PICI's launch, our leaders' high-level political commitment to champion and accelerate the implementation of key trans-boundary infrastructure projects remains. In this regard, we have moved from ambitious talk to tangible execution. Our intentions must now be translated into bankable projects, durable institutions and measurable impact aligned with Agenda 2063's Second Ten-Year Implementation Plan. Our horizon must be a connected Africa by 2034. Excellencies, The work of our PICI and various Champions has begun to deliver a real “Champion Dividend." On connectivity, landmark corridors that once existed only on paper are now nearing completion. The Trans-Sahara Highway – an artery of continental exchange – is more than ninety percent complete. Projects that had been stalled for decades are entering the final stage of commissioning. On investor confidence, corridor initiatives such as the Abidjan-Lagos project have catalysed substantial private interest – over 15.6 billion Dollars in investment intentions. This demonstrates that when we de-risk and properly prepare projects, capital will follow. In terms of policy innovation, initiatives like “Smart Africa," initially championed in the East African Community to eliminate mobile roaming charges and create digital common markets, have become replicable models for policy harmonisation across RECs. These breakthroughs are not abstract – they support our collective aim to reduce trade costs, expand markets and open opportunities for our citizens. They are evidence that where unity of purpose exists, transformation follows. Excellencies, Based on recent updates on the progress of various transboundary projects, we can assess the impact and challenges of PICI work, providing an important reality check. We must confront persistent obstacles, such as chronic project delays, funding shortfalls, and insufficient private-sector participation at the scale we require. The cost of capital remains high for many African projects. Political and social instability, and weak community engagement, can stall even the most promising initiatives. Political championing at the top is necessary but is currently not sufficient. We must also secure legitimacy and stability on the ground. Ladies and Gentlemen, This meeting has an important and urgent mandate – to convert political goodwill into investment-ready outcomes. As we deliberate on assessing and reviewing the work of various PICI projects, I encourage all of us to focus on the following four imperatives: - The Bankability Imperative – Too many promising projects fail to attract capital because they are poorly prepared. The PICI report must demand a dramatic scaling up of resources and capacity for high-quality project preparation through feasibility studies, environmental and social due diligence, procurement readiness, and financial structuring. We must insist that every major corridor and platform be accompanied by a de-risked business case that investors can evaluate and fund immediately.
- The Private Capital Strategy – Mobilising private finance at scale requires a pragmatic and enforceable roadmap, standardised Public-Private Partnership (PPP) frameworks, stronger legal and regulatory environments, clear risk allocation, and blended finance instruments that are transparent and replicable. I encourage you to recommend aggressive adoption of model laws and standardised contracts. For example, accelerated deployment, where appropriate, of the PIDA Model Laws, to reduce fragmentation and raise investor confidence.
- Operational Coordination – Technical, regulatory and standards divergence between countries is an operational tax on integration. Strengthen mechanisms for harmonising standards, cross-border customs procedures and digital interoperability. The final report must propose concrete, time-bound measures for inter-operability, so that the wheels of a train in one state fit the track of its neighbour, and so that cargo, people and data flow across borders with predictability.
- Continuity and Risk Mitigation – Infrastructure is inherently long-term and must be insulated from political cycles. The report should offer institutional solutions that ensure continuity. These include binding regional commitments, escrowed financing mechanisms, programme-level agreements, and formalised championing that survives elections and administration changes. Political champions must translate into institutional anchors.
Beyond these technical pillars, I ask you to foreground community and social licence. Projects that fail to secure local buy-in are vulnerable. Embed requirements for meaningful stakeholder engagement, clear benefit-sharing arrangements, and conflict-sensitive implementation in every recommendation. Distinguished Colleagues, The important issues and recommendations emanating from our deliberations today will serve as the cornerstone of the PICI Chair's presentation to the upcoming Inter-Ministerial Committee. It must therefore be crisp, unambiguous and action-oriented. It must send a clear message to governments, financiers and partners that African political commitment to infrastructure is unwavering; our projects are producing results, and we are ready to deepen investment partnerships that deliver shared prosperity. As we the progress of PICI projects, let us be rigorous and candid. Challenge assumptions, tighten targets, and require timelines and responsible actors. In closing, I would like all of us to remember why the work of PICI is important. Each kilometre of completed road, each cross-border rail link, and each harmonised digital protocol shortens the distance between aspiration and opportunity for millions of Africans. I believe that our deliberations today will determine whether the next decade is defined by stalled promises or by tangible and shared gains. I therefore call upon each of you to be bold recommendations. Let us ensure that political leadership is matched by technical excellence and durable institutions. I thank you!!
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