Samaila Zubairu just raised $2 billion for Africa's infrastructure and half the room was Asian banks

Samaila Zubairu has spent the past decade turning African infrastructure financing from a hard sell into a competitive bid. The latest evidence is a $2 billion syndicated loan that oversubscribed and drew more Asian banks than any previous AFC raise.

Africa Finance Corporation, the pan-African multilateral development finance institution Zubairu leads as president and chief executive, has closed a $2 billion syndicated term loan, the largest debt facility in the corporation's 17-year history. Asian and European banks each accounted for approximately 35% of participating lenders, with the remaining 30% drawn from African and Middle Eastern financial institutions.

The syndication was led by Barclays, Commerzbank, First Abu Dhabi Bank and FirstRand. Participating Asian lenders included Export Import Bank of India, Bank of Communications, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Industrial Bank of Korea, among others.

Zubairu was direct about what shifted in this transaction compared to prior raises. "We typically have a diverse funding base," he said in an interview. "But in this round we saw a lot more Asian banks. We have banks from China, Hong Kong and Korea. They're a lot more engaged." That engagement is not accidental. AFC has spent years building bilateral relationships with Asian financial institutions, starting with Kimchi loan facilities from South Korean markets in 2022, Samurai bond structures in Japan and a sustained deepening of its China book. The $2 billion close is the cumulative result of that relationship building arriving at the moment when African infrastructure has become a credible institutional asset class.

AFC's FY2025 annual results, published in May 2026, showed total comprehensive income rising 28.4% to $513.8 million, with total revenue reaching $1.25 billion, having first crossed the $1 billion mark in 2024. The corporation's total assets now stand at approximately $12 billion, up from $10.5 billion in 2022, and it has invested $13 billion across Africa since its founding in 2007. Its S&P Global Ratings long-term credit rating of A, with a positive outlook, has been central to its ability to attract Asian institutional lenders who require investment-grade counterparties.

The fresh capital arrives as AFC expands its project pipeline into new territory. The corporation is in discussions around a possible role in the proposed oil refinery Aliko Dangote has announced for East Africa, a project that could reach between $15 billion and $17 billion in total investment cost and would represent one of the largest industrial projects on the continent's eastern seaboard. AFC has existing experience in refinery financing, having been part of the funding consortium behind the Dangote Petroleum Refinery in Lagos.

Broader global dynamics are also pulling capital toward African infrastructure. The US-Iran conflict and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz have disrupted energy supply chains globally, pushing oil-importing African nations to accelerate domestic refining capacity. Rail and port development across the continent has intensified as shipping costs and route volatility push governments and private operators toward inland alternatives. Power project demand remains structural: Africa faces an annual infrastructure financing gap estimated at $400 billion, a figure that AFC's own president Zubairu cited at the AfDB Annual Meetings in Brazzaville last week as the frame for the New African Financial Architecture for Development initiative.

The OECD and African Union jointly estimate that returns on infrastructure investments in Africa can reach as high as 20%, a figure that compares favorably against comparable assets in developed markets, particularly in a period of tightening global margins. That math has not been lost on Asian development banks and commercial lenders looking for yield outside crowded home markets.

AFC's next frontier is equity capital. The corporation raised $330.6 million in new equity in 2025, with 81% coming from existing shareholders. Zubairu has said publicly that AFC's goal is to grow its balance sheet to $20 billion by 2030, a target that the $2 billion syndicated loan materially advances.