Ebitari Itonyo, a finance and infrastructure expert, has managed over $1 billion in transactions across the energy, telecommunications, and digital sectors. Currently, he structures and monitors loans at a leading project finance bank, focusing on clean energy and grid resilience and industrial decarbonization.
In this interview, Itonyo explained why Africa’s energy gap persists despite significant investment and outlined key strategies to unlock the continent’s energy future.
You have structured and executed landmark deals. What do you see as the core issue behind Africa’s infrastructure gap?
The core issue behind Africa’s infrastructure gap is not a lack of capital but a shortage of bankable projects. Despite the availability of funding from development institutions, pension funds, and climate-aligned facilities, many projects fail to reach financial close due to inadequate preparation and structuring.
As noted by experts, including the President of a development bank, the continent suffers from a dearth of investment-ready pipelines, with less than 5% of global infrastructure investment because of a lack of investment-ready pipelines. This bottleneck highlights the need for enhanced project development processes to transform available capital into tangible infrastructure outcomes.
I have been part of projects that succeeded because the structure was there from the start. Too often, deals fail not due to lack of interest, but due to lack of readiness.
What’s missing in most failed or delayed projects?
Three things: structure, scale, and sustained preparation. Many projects lack strong financial models that reflect real-world risks. Without those, you can’t attract serious capital. Then there’s scale; you can’t draw institutional capital to scattered 1MW mini-grids or small residential solar systems. But if you aggregate them into a cohesive portfolio? That becomes bankable.
Finally, there’s often no clear path from feasibility to financial close. Projects start strong, but stall when regulatory, financial, or operational hurdles emerge.
What practical steps can help close this gap?
We need to professionalise asset creation. That means more investment in project development—technical assistance, feasibility support, and stronger institutional capacity within ministries and infrastructure agencies.
We also need more innovative public-private collaboration. Blended capital tools are improving, and local guarantees and insurance solutions are helping reduce risk. However, these tools need to be scaled and used earlier in the project lifecycle.
Governments should focus on stable regulatory frameworks, and private capital providers need to stop waiting for perfect deals—they should get involved earlier in structuring and design.
What’s your role in helping bridge this gap?
I currently work in infrastructure and private capital underwriting at a global project finance institution, supporting complex deals across North America and globally. That gives me insight into how world-class infrastructure gets financed—whether it’s tax equity, long-term fixed-rate debt, or regulatory-backed revenue models.
Earlier in my career, I helped execute large energy and digital infrastructure deals in West Africa. Those experiences taught me that smart structuring moves capital, and I now apply those lessons across multiple markets, working with sponsors, policymakers, and institutions to bring deals to life.
Where does local capacity-building come in?
It’s essential. Capital flows to confidence, and that confidence comes from capable people. That’s why I’ve also focused on training professionals through a technical platform I’ve been part of since 2021. We’ve trained over 500 professionals in project finance, blended capital, and PPP modeling—equipping talent across public and private sectors to originate and structure investable deals.
You can’t scale capital without scaling talent. We’re not just teaching—we’re growing a generation of professionals who can lead.
What signs of progress give you hope?
Governments are building project preparation units. More institutions are funding early-stage development. There’s greater adoption of tools that de-risk capital, like local currency guarantees, credit enhancement, and pooled infrastructure vehicles.
There’s also growing interest in involving domestic institutional capital, particularly pension funds and sovereign investors, which is a promising sign. Most of all, I’m optimistic because of the people I work with—young professionals who are intelligent, ambitious, and ready. If we give them the tools and the environment, they’ll build the infrastructure that drives Africa’s next decade.
