…The fund is part of AFC Capital Partners’ $750 million Infrastructure Climate-Resilient Fund, which aims to build greater resilience into African infrastructure
MON AUG 24 2026-theGBJournal| AFC Capital Partners, the asset management arm of Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), has launched a new fund to mobilise domestic institutional capital for climate-resilient infrastructure projects in Nigeria and across Africa.
The Infrastructure Climate-Resilient Fund Nigeria (ICRF Nigeria), registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission as a closed-end fund, will target investment from pension funds, insurers, asset managers and other Nigerian institutional investors.
The fund is part of AFC Capital Partners’ $750 million Infrastructure Climate-Resilient Fund, which aims to build greater resilience into African infrastructure by incorporating climate risks into projects from planning and design through construction and operations.
The initiative comes as governments and investors face growing pressure to ensure that infrastructure supporting Africa’s economic growth can withstand more frequent and severe climate-related shocks.
ICRF has attracted participation from leading global and African institutional investors, including a US$253 million first-loss commitment from the Green Climate Fund (GCF)—its largest equity investment in Africa to date—alongside the European Investment Bank (EIB), Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP), the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), and several African pension funds.
ACP expects to mobilise up to US$3.7 billion in total financing through ICRF and build a diversified portfolio of 10 to 12 infrastructure projects across Africa.
Samaila Zubairu, AFC’s President and CEO, commented: “Africa is not short of capital. The continent holds more than US$4 trillion in domestic resources, including significant pools of long-term capital in pensions, insurance and sovereign wealth funds.
Yet too much of this wealth remains invested in low-risk, short-term instruments rather than being channeled into productive sectors such as infrastructure, industry and innovation.
“The opportunity before us is to create investment vehicles that connect Africa’s long-term savings with its long-term development needs. ICRF Nigeria is an important step in that direction, enabling Nigerian institutional capital to participate in the infrastructure that will drive more resilient and sustainable growth across Nigeria and the continent.”
Ayaan Adam, CEO of ACP, said: “ICRF Nigeria gives Nigerian institutional investors a dedicated route into high-quality, climate-resilient infrastructure investments across Nigeria and Africa.
By combining institutional capital with AFC’s infrastructure expertise and the catalytic power of blended finance, we can address both the financing needs of critical infrastructure and the growing risks posed by climate change.
“Importantly, this creates an avenue for Nigeria’s long-term savings to contribute to infrastructure development while giving investors access to a diversified portfolio of opportunities across the continent.”
ICRF combines concessional and commercial capital to overcome barriers that have historically constrained investment in climate adaptation across Africa. Through blended finance and targeted de-risking mechanisms, the Fund integrates climate resilience into infrastructure from the outset, helping to unlock private capital for investment in projects that might otherwise be difficult to finance.
The Fund’s target sectors are critical to Africa’s economic transformation, including renewable energy, transport and logistics, digital infrastructure and industrial development.
Its investment approach considers both physical and transition climate risks, including exposure to extreme weather, emissions pathways and climate governance. Each investment undergoes climate risk screening and assessment to embed resilience throughout the infrastructure lifecycle.
The Green Climate Fund plays a catalytic role through its provision of first-loss capital and technical assistance for climate risk assessment and monitoring, helping to de-risk investments and crowd in additional institutional capital.
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