Credit iStock.com/Sean Anthony Eddy
Credit iStock.com/Sean Anthony Eddy
Credit iStock.com/Sean Anthony Eddy
Credit iStock.com/Sean Anthony Eddy
Africa needs more and better infrastructure. Over the past decades, African countries have significantly narrowed efficiency gaps in health and education spending, but infrastructure spending has not improved at the same pace.[1] The challenge is not only to mobilize more financing, but to ensure that investment delivers: roads are completed in time and maintained, power is reliable, hospitals are built to last, and projects provide value for money. The IMF’s Anglo African Public Investment Management Workshop brought together participants from 17 countries to work through these issues and look at what implementation measures are working.[2]
Over the past decade, the IMF has conducted more than 120 Public Investment Management (20 repeats) Assessments (PIMAs), including 44 in sub-Saharan Africa (9 repeats). These assessments show that many African countries have improved the design of their public investment institutions. However, the gap between rules and what happens in practice remains wide. In some countries, legal and regulatory frameworks have been strengthened; but the effectiveness of implementation has stagnated and, in some cases, declined (Figure 1). The reform frontier is therefore no longer only writing better rules; it is making them work in practice.
Countries are already acting: governments are developing new PIM policies, manuals, and appraisal guidance; strengthening PIM units; improving costing of capital projects; and integrating climate considerations into project design. The PIMAs and Climate PIMAs help identify reforms and lay out road maps on how to get there. The harder task is to implement new regulation and guidance in day-to-day budget decisions, project selection, monitoring, and delivery.
There are four key takeaways from the workshop.
First, the link between the budget process and projects should be strong. Good implementation starts with strong budget gatekeeping: only viable projects should enter annual and medium-term budgets, and ongoing projects should be funded first. Too often, weak budget functions, unrealistic medium-term frameworks, fragmented cash management, and “drip financing” delay projects and raise costs. Better links between project planning and budgeting are therefore central to better delivery.
Figure 1. AFR—Average Score Change Between Original and Updated PIMA Assessments
Source: IMF, PIMA database. Comparing 9 countries with repeat PIMAs
Second, governments need to monitor what is being built, not just what is being spent. Portfolio monitoring remains weak in many countries because systems are fragmented, reporting is not standardized, and ex post reviews are rarely used. Better practice means tracking financial and physical progress, reallocating funds transparently when projects underperform, and using lessons from completed projects to improve future design and delivery.
Third, state-owned enterprises need to be part of the public investment system. SOEs deliver many infrastructure services, however they can also create significant fiscal risks. Countries should therefore integrate SOEs into PIM frameworks, clarify delivery targets, strengthen central oversight, limit guarantees where appropriate, and use financial ratios and scenario analysis to identify risks early.
Fourth, public-private partnerships should be used selectively. PPPs can deliver good services at reasonable cost when projects are well prepared, risks are understood, and public capacity is strong. But they are just a procurement option, not a solution for wishful thinking or a lack of capacity. Africa has seen rising PPP investment over the past decade, especially in energy. That makes careful scrutiny even more important, including through robust appraisal tools, risk analysis, and use of standard contracts, including for climate-resilient infrastructure.
African countries have made significant progress in building the legal and institutional foundations for better public investment. That is a major achievement. The next challenge is delivery: selecting projects carefully, budgeting for them realistically, monitoring them rigorously, managing SOE and PPP risks, and learning from what works. Africa’s infrastructure agenda will be judged not by the number of rules on paper, but by projects delivered on time, on budget, and with clear benefits for citizens.
[1] IMF (2025) Fiscal Monitor: Spending Smarter: How Efficient and Well-Allocated Public Spending Can Boost Economic Growth. Washington, DC: IMF, October.
[2] Strengthening Public Investment Management Practices, December 9 – 12, 2025, Nairobi, Kenya. Conducted by the IMF Fiscal Affairs Department, AFRITAC East, West2, South. Financial support from the Government of Japan and SECO is gratefully acknowledged.
