Resetting Capital Flows Between Europe and Africa
Dr Hubert Danso, Ai’s Chairman and CEO, urged EU leaders to restructure capital flows, specifically asking the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the European Investment Bank to take the lead in the GEMS Consortium. The goal is to implement the G20 GEMs2.0 Directive, which aims to standardise sovereign-risk data for investors and rating agencies.
The lack of transparent data creates a significant financial gap. Dr Danso noted that opaque risk data costs African and emerging economies $15.6bn annually in excess interest and foregone investment. He also pointed out that this absence erodes $4–6tn in long-term returns for European pension funds, insurers, and sovereign wealth funds.
Aligning the EU’s Global Gateway with GreenAlpha’s Institutional Investor–Public Partnership architecture could accelerate European mobilisation and lower the cost of capital. Dr Danso stated that the partnership would enable African-manufactured hydrogen, battery-precursor materials, and critical-mineral technologies to reach global markets efficiently.
The focus remains on making development investable rather than trying to force investment to be developmental. Dr Danso called for coordinated co-investment policies to crowd in European institutional capital at scale, creating a resilient engine for the industrial investment relationship.
This structural reform is championed under South Africa’s G20 Presidency, which identifies cost-of-capital reform as a strategic priority. Dr Danso urged EU leaders to mandate the EBRD and EIB to provide leadership within the GEMS Consortium to implement the G20 GEMs2.0 Directive. This directive aims to democratise sovereign-risk data for investors and rating agencies, while collaborating with investor-led GEMs3.0 sandbox programmes to address the opacity in Emerging Market and Developing Economies (EMDE) risk data.
Building a Dedicated Asset Class
GreenAlpha has established African green-industrial infrastructure as a globally competitive, investable asset class. The structure provides Basel-aligned, long-duration portfolio architecture suitable for pensions, insurers, and sovereign funds, aiming to mobilise long-duration global capital.
This asset class mirrors the models used by Canada and Australia, where dedicated infrastructure classes helped mobilise domestic capital. GreenAlpha’s focus includes logistics, industrial corridors, and energy, with Dr Danso engaging EU delegations and multinational CEOs to structure partnership opportunities.
The IIPP model brings together global asset owners, African governments, DFIs, and industry partners to co-create the policies and governance systems needed to mobilise private capital. This unified approach is intended to serve as the backbone for Africa–EU green-industrial investment cooperation.
Dr Danso emphasised that aligning EU institutional capital with GreenAlpha IIPP platforms delivers major shared gains, including secure access to critical minerals, expanded green-technology manufacturing, enhanced supply-chain resilience, accelerated job creation across both continents, and improved industry competitiveness. He stressed that EU universal owners and EU industrial offtakers stand to benefit directly from Africa’s growing participation in the $10 trillion-a-year global green-industrial economy, including competitively priced African-manufactured hydrogen, battery-precursor materials, e-fuels, and critical-mineral-based technologies.
