African Growth Plans Put Private Capital in Command

Ghana’s 24-Hour Economy programme is preparing businesses to seek bank finance, while insisting private companies must lead and bear the credit risk. The 24-Hour Economy Authority Act, 2026, provides statutory backing, and the 2026 Budget allocated GH¢110 million. The state acts as enabler; private capital sits in the driver’s seat.

“No phone, no fares, no income,” says women-led Sikili, which gives ride-hailing drivers refurbished smartphones they pay for in daily installments. It’s one of nine enterprises chosen for an African Development Bank-backed programme to scale local processing and green industry.

Who Gets to Set the Terms

Ghana’s 24-Hour Economy Secretariat says it has shifted from identifying barriers to developing ways to address them. Chief Programme Officer Abdul-Nasser Alidu said the programme’s first year identified land, infrastructure and access to finance as major constraints. The Secretariat finalized a land-access policy and mobilized about 600 hectares for priority investments.

Under the policy’s participatory model, traditional authorities and land-owning communities become minority equity holders in projects located on their land. Officials have identified about eight million hectares of arable land along the Volta Economic Corridor for large-scale agricultural investment. The model brings communities into projects, but leaves them with minority stakes.

Twelve oil marketing companies and 268 filling stations have started 24-hour operations, alongside 33 manufacturing companies and about 11 state agencies. More than 10,000 businesses have registered for the Enterprise Support Programme, which prepares firms to approach banks. The Secretariat says it’s working with Ghana Statistical Services to study job creation and publish independent data.

Lenders still control access to credit. Alidu described a soybean-crushing facility in northern Ghana whose entrepreneur banks refused working capital because they wanted property in Accra rather than the Tamale facility. The Secretariat is seeking authorization from the Bank of Ghana and National Insurance Commission to set up a no-collateral credit-guarantee fund. The Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa approved $290 million for small and medium-sized enterprises, but sent the funding to participating banks, not the Secretariat; Development Bank Ghana on-lent a large share through commercial banks, which used their own assessments.

Ghanaian businesses often build their own roads, transformers, security and effluent treatment, adding costs, particularly outside Accra. The Secretariat says it’s working to provide shared infrastructure. As of May 2026, it reported $5.5 billion in joint development agreements within an $11.5 billion pipeline.

Budgets, Banks and the Bottom Line

Angola’s proposed 2027 budget forecasts growth of 5.50% in 2027, with the non-oil economy expected to grow 7.15% while oil and gas contract 3.82%. It projects oil’s share of tax revenue will fall from 56.9% in 2026 to 46.4% in 2027. But the report also puts unemployment at 21.5% in the second quarter of 2026, with 2.79 million people unemployed; among people aged 15 to 24, unemployment was 40.5%, and informal work accounted for 80.1% of employment.

The budget analysis says the reported unemployment rate’s fall from roughly 28%–29% to around 21% largely reflects a methodological change, not an equivalent improvement in people’s prospects. If parliament approves the proposed law, the president could move funds between budget lines, adjust allocations, add spending using additional revenue, replace slow-moving projects and borrow domestically and abroad. The figures leave open whether projected diversification will deliver productivity, formal employment and business activity.

More than 1,250 participants gathered in Luanda on November 3 for the sixth Africa Financial Summit, organized by Jeune Afrique Media Group with the International Finance Corporation and the Angolan government. African banks generated more than $100 billion in revenue in 2024 and earned a 19% return on equity, while loans made up about 30% of banking assets. Yet Africa’s annual development-financing gap remains above $400 billion, despite estimated long-term domestic savings of $4 trillion. The summit’s proposed New African Financial Architecture for Development aims to improve coordination, strengthen guarantees and mobilize public and private capital.

Local Processing, Private Markets

The AfriCircular Growth Programme has started with nine enterprises operating across 10 African countries. Nigeria’s ColdHubs uses solar-powered cold stores to preserve food; Uganda’s Bio-Innovations turns agricultural waste into fuel briquettes; and Kenya’s Chemolex converts harvested water hyacinth into a biodegradable substitute for conventional plastics. Chemolex employs more than 1,600 women and young people, while Eco Renew Recyclers has created 77 formal jobs. The nine companies are seeking US$11.65 million, and programme support will connect each with at least 10 investors.

“Africa must retain a greater share of the value on the continent,” said Anthony Nyong, Director of the Bank’s Climate Change and Green Growth Department. Togo’s GIP-Togo makes recycled pellets, paving stones and crutches sold at half the price of imported models. The company plans to raise output from 300 to 500 tonnes a month.

South Africa’s private-capital market held R629.7 billion in assets under management, according to 27four’s Investment Management South Africa 2026 report. Private debt represented R391.6 billion and private equity R238.1 billion. In the detailed private-credit sample, the four largest funds accounted for about 90% of exposures, with the largest at about 52%. Eighty percent of managers named established small and mid-sized businesses as their primary borrowers, but only 15% reported average loan sizes below R15 million.

Retirement funds held R3.65 trillion in assets in 2024, while 0.8% went to private-equity funds, against a regulatory ceiling of 15%. Capital has channels, managers and rules. The harder question threaded through these figures is who gets to direct it—and who waits for the promised jobs and services.