State Enterprises Return to Profitability – SIGA
The State Interests and Governance Authority, SIGA, says Ghana’s State-Owned Enterprises recorded…
Mahama Commissions Northshore Apparel Factory in Savelugu
President John Dramani Mahama has commissioned the Northshore Apparel Ghana Limited manufacturing…
From Dialogue to Delivery: Ghana–Korea Health Partnership Enters a New Chapter
Ghana’s Ambassador to the Republic of Korea, Ambassador Kojo Choi has reaffirmed…
President Mahama Cuts Sod for Major Airport Expansion Project at Terminal 3
President John Dramani Mahama on Thursday, August 27, 2026, cut sod for…
New PMI Research Reveals Growing Gap Between Sustainability Ambition and Delivery
As organisations across Africa and the rest of the world seek to translate sustainability ambitions into business outcomes, new research from Project Management Institute (PMI) and Green Project Management, the world's leading organisation advancing sustainable practices within the profession, reveals a critical challenge - many are struggling to deliver measurable sustainability outcomes. The findings come at a time when the world is running out of time to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). According to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Report 2025, only 35% of SDG targets are currently on track or making moderate progress, while nearly half are advancing too slowly, and 18% have regressed. Against this backdrop, PMI's latest research highlights a challenge that receives far less attention than policy or funding debates – execution. The report, Executing Sustainability Strategy: When Ambition Meets Reality, surveyed nearly 1,600 professionals across 35 countries and found a significant disconnect between strategic confidence and execution readiness. While 85% of sustainability executives believe their organisations will achieve their sustainability goals, only 43% of Project Management Office (PMO) leaders share that confidence. Among project professionals responsible for implementation, just 20% are extremely confident in their organisation's ability to deliver. The study also found that although 79% of respondents believe sustainability is important to long-term success, only 41% say it is fully integrated into projects and daily operations. For Africa, where projects underpin everything from infrastructure and energy development to healthcare, mining, agriculture, and digital transformation, the findings point to a challenge that is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. “Sustainability is no longer a separate conversation from business performance. Across the continent, governments and businesses have set bold targets and made significant commitments. The real challenge is delivery. A strategy does not build a power station, expand broadband access, or improve water security - projects do. If sustainability is not embedded into project delivery, organisations will struggle to achieve the outcomes they are aiming for," says George Asamani, Managing Director, PMI Sub-Saharan Africa. The research identified sustainability as the strongest predictor of project success, ranking ahead of traditional delivery factors such as governance structures and project methodologies. Yet despite its demonstrated value, 59% of organisations have not fully integrated sustainability into project delivery and operational decision-making. The report identified six recurring barriers that prevent organisations from successfully executing sustainability strategies. These include difficulty quantifying sustainability benefits in business terms, weak integration into decision-making processes, unclear goals, competing delivery priorities, limited visibility into outcomes and the challenge of working against longer-term outcome horizons. For Sub-Saharan Africa, where sustainability outcomes directly determine access to international development finance, ESG-linked investment, and climate funding, this execution gap carries particular consequences. Organisations that cannot demonstrate measurable sustainability delivery risk being excluded from the investment flows that will define the continent's next decade of growth.…
ECOWAS launches technical fact finding mission to Sierra Leone for Stabilization Fund
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), through its Regional Fund…
Africa’s infrastructure opportunity depends on closing the execution gap
The paradox of African infrastructure today is stark. While the “funding gap” continues to dominate policy discourse, it is the “execution gap”, or more precisely, the challenge of translating capital into delivery, that is increasingly shaping development outcomes in Africa. Across the continent, governments are becoming increasingly sophisticated at raising capital. Investment conferences are attracting global attention, new financing vehicles are emerging, and ambitious infrastructure programmes are being announced with growing frequency. While this progress reflects growing ambition across the continent, it should not obscure the scale of Africa’s remaining infrastructure gap. The African Development Bank estimates the continent’s infrastructure financing needs at approximately US$400 billion per year. The challenge is no longer solely about raising capital but also about ensuring that investment commitments translate into well-prepared, execution-ready, and bankable projects. Recent data illustrates this disconnect clearly. South Africa, the continent’s most industrialized economy, has secured over $91 billion (R1.5 trillion) in investment pledges through the South Africa Investment Conferences since 2018. However, only $38.6 billion (R634 billion), just under 42%, had flowed into the economy by March 2026. While investment announcements rarely translate fully into projects, South Africa’s conversion rates remain below global norms, highlighting persistent delivery challenges. McKinsey estimates that 60–80% of announced FDI is typically realised worldwide. This reveals a critical constraint, a limited pipeline of bankable projects. Many infrastructure projects strugg le not because financing is unavailable, but because they fail to progress through the complex preparation and development processes required to attract investment and move toward implementation. As Tidjane Thiam, the former Swiss Credit CEO, recently argued, global investors are actively seeking greater exposure to Africa, drawn by its long-term growth potential. The real bottleneck lies in connecting that capital with bankable opportunities through stronger project preparation, advisory support, and financial intermediation. These upstream stages involve far more than feasibility studies. They require technical and engineering assessments, environmental, social, and judicial reviews, financial and commercial structuring, regulatory alignment, stakeholder coordination, risk allocation, permitting, and implementation planning. In many cases, infrastructure projects lose momentum at these early stages, long before construction begins or financing is fully deployed. As a McKinsey report highlights, fewer than 10% of Africa’s infrastructure projects reach financial close, with nearly 80% failing at the feasibility or business-planning stage. The implication is significant: the success of infrastructure projects is often determined long before capital is spent on the ground. Strengthening upstream project capability is therefore critical to Africa’s ability to deliver infrastructure at scale. Too many projects fall into the “lack-of-project-management-capacity trap”, where weak preparation and execution undermine otherwise promising initiatives. This challenge is already visible across major continental infrastructure initiatives. The first phase of the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA) delivered significant gains, including over 16,000 kilometres of roads and expanded digital and energy connectivity across Africa. Yet one of the most persistent constraints identified was limited capacity for early-stage project preparation, from feasibility studies to structuring investable proposals. The lesson is clear: without stronger upstream capacity, even well-funded infrastructure ambitions struggle to move from commitment to implementation.…
Djalal Khimdjee appointed CEO of the Africa50 Principal Investment Fund
Africa50, the specialist investor in African infrastructure today announced the appointment of…
ECOWAS Strengthens Institutions Ahead of Leadership Transition as Finance Committee Concludes Key Meeting in Freetown
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has reaffirmed its commitment…
Ghanaian Business Mogul Ernest Ofori Sarpong to lend Industry insights to UniMAC
Renowned Ghanaian entrepreneur and business leader Ernest Ofori Sarpong is set to bring his…