Financing Africa’s Development Corridors: Insights from the Luanda Infrastructure Financing Summit

The Luanda Infrastructure Financing Summit, held from 27 to 31 October 2025 in Luanda brought together African governments, development partners, financiers, and implementing organisations to reflect on how Africa’s development corridors can be financed and strengthened to better support economic transformation. Discussions focused on how corridors can move beyond their traditional role as transport and transit routes to become drivers of industrialisation, regional value addition, and inclusive and sustainable economic growth.

The Summit featured high-level panel discussions on international cooperation and financing partnerships. During these exchanges, the Director General of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Birgit Pickel, reaffirmed Germany’s continued support to the African Union and its partners. She emphasised that sustainable investments in Africa’s infrastructure, energy, and related sectors can create a “triple win” by benefiting African countries, Europe, and Germany through shared prosperity, stability, and strengthened partnerships.

These reflections are in line with the work of the AU-German project Integrated Corridors for Economic Growth in Africa(Africa InCORE), which operates under the African Union’s Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA) to promote integrated, sustainable, and well-coordinated corridor development. Through ongoing collaboration with the African Union Commission, AUDA-NEPAD, and the Central Corridor Transit Transport Facilitation Agency (CCTTFA), the project is supporting partners in applying these ideas in practice.

Notably, at the Summit, CCTTFA, supported by Germany, showcased its innovative transformation into a Green Economic Development Corridor (GEDC). This approach positions member states for green, inclusive, and industrial growth by linking infrastructure investments to productive sectors, trade facilitation, and regional value chains, rather than treating them as stand-alone transport interventions. By promoting more integrated planning and stronger networks between public and private sector actors, this model supports a more coherent approach to investment and enhances intra-African trade, creating jobs and economic opportunities for the private sector.

The summit also provided space for exchange across several initiatives supported by the German Government, including the AU-German projects: Africa InCORE, Accelerating the Energy Transformation in Africa (ENGAGE), and Inclusive and Harmonised Digital and Data Policies in Africa (DataCipation). It served as a testing ground for formats such as “deal rooms,” where public sector institutions and private developers pitched projects to investors, who in turn asked critical questions and explored opportunities for collaboration. These interactions highlighted the value of coordinated approaches that bring together infrastructure planning, governance, financing, and data-driven decision-making in support of Africa’s long-term development priorities.