BY CHIKA OKEKE, Abuja
Sahara Group has advocated sustained investment in energy, infrastructure, industry, agriculture, and enterprise development to unlock Africa’s job market, strengthen competitiveness, and support long-term resilience.
The Group Managing Director, Sahara Power Enterprise Group, Dr Kola Adesina stated this at a United Nations General Assembly roundtable on Sustainable Global Investment, Economic Resilience and Climate Financing.
He said: “Africa’s most pressing challenge is expanding its productive capacity at scale. We need sustained investment in energy, infrastructure, industry, agriculture, and enterprise development to create jobs, strengthen competitiveness, and support long-term resilience.”
Adesina noted that the global investment landscape presented significant opportunities for Africa, adding that foreign direct investment reached approximately $1.6 trillion in 2025, while assets linked to sustainable investment strategies rose to $16.7 trillion globally.
The figures reflected growing investor demand for projects capable of delivering both financial and developmental value.
He highlighted climate finance as a critical component of resilient economic growth, particularly as African economies faced increasing exposure to droughts, floods, extreme heat and other climate-related risks.
Adesina pointed out that despite Africa accounting for less than four per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, the continent requires substantial investment not only to grow, but also to protect the infrastructure, businesses, food systems, and communities that underpinned development.
African countries require an estimated $277 billion annually to implement their climate commitments, compared with climate finance flows of about $30 billion annually. The financing gap underscores the need for innovative financing structures capable of unlocking more capital for climate mitigation and adaptation projects.
The GMD informed that the company’s investments cut across liquefied natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas, gas-to-power infrastructure and logistics, citing Sahara’s commitment to achieving net-zero emissions by 2060 through strategic gas infrastructure development, renewable energy integration and nature-based solutions.
Adesina sought stronger project preparation, increased mobilisation of African institutional capital, deeper local-currency financing markets and greater regional collaboration in energy, transport and logistics infrastructure.
He added: “Africa’s opportunity lies in building resilient prosperity, where investment translates into productive capacity, jobs, reliable infrastructure, and sustainable economic growth that endures for generations. That is the kind of future sustainable investment and climate financing can help unlock across the continent.”
The GMD informed that Africa needed stronger mobilisation of sustainable investment and climate finance to address its infrastructure deficit, strengthen economic resilience and support long-term economic growth.
To this end, he disclosed that Africa’s growth ambitions depended on building productive economies capable of withstanding economic, environmental and geopolitical shocks.
Adesina hinted that sustainable investment, economic resilience and climate finance should be pursued as interconnected priorities, especially as African countries continued to face challenges in infrastructure, energy, food security and employment.
Almost 600 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa lack access to electricity, while the continent faces an annual infrastructure financing gap estimated at between $68 billion and $108 billion.
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