Africa Finance Corporation

Samaila Zubairu serves as President and CEO, leading both the executive management team and the investment committee. Major equity commitments exceeding certain thresholds also require board approval, where member-state shareholders and independent directors exercise oversight. Zubairu assumed the presidency in 2018, succeeding Andrew Alli, who had led AFC since its 2007 founding.

AFC originates projects through its in-country relationships with member-state governments, its role as a preferred co-investor for African commercial banks, and its seat in early-stage project development consortia. The corporation frequently acts as anchor developer for greenfield infrastructure, earning origination fees and preferred-equity terms. Its presence across 28 member states gives it access to infrastructure pipelines that external DFIs and funds typically see only at financial close.

Both. AFC deploys equity and debt from its own balance sheet, which exceeds $5 billion in total assets, and it established AFC Capital Partners as an asset management subsidiary to raise and manage third-party infrastructure equity funds from institutional investors. The parent corporation also arranges co-financing by syndicating project debt to commercial banks and multilateral lenders, multiplying its deployment capacity beyond what its own capital base permits.

AFC operates on a purely commercial, for-profit basis and does not rely on donor-country replenishments or concessional lending windows. Its investment-grade rating (Moody's A3) is earned through balance-sheet performance rather than preferred-creditor treatment. The corporation also develops and owns equity in projects rather than simply lending against them, and it is governed by a private-sector-majority board alongside sovereign shareholders.

AFC invests across its 28 West, Central, East, and Southern African member states, with historical concentration in Nigeria, Ghana, Angola, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The corporation generally avoids markets where it lacks sovereign-shareholder backing, and it has publicly stated that it will not finance thermal coal projects, aligning its capital deployment with its climate-finance framework.

No. AFC's mandate is exclusively commercial, and it does not operate grant-making or concessional lending facilities. Its development impact is pursued through job creation, domestic resource mobilization, and reduction of infrastructure bottlenecks — all measured through its proprietary development-impact scorecard, which tracks outcomes across each investment rather than through philanthropic side vehicles.

AFC actively co-invests alongside sovereign wealth funds, development finance institutions, and private infrastructure funds on a deal-by-deal basis rather than committing as an LP to blind-pool funds. The corporation has co-invested with entities such as the International Finance Corporation, European development banks, and Gulf-based sovereign investors on large-scale power and transport projects. Through AFC Capital Partners, however, it raises discretionary fund vehicles that accept LP commitments from institutional allocators seeking African infrastructure exposure.