Why public-private partnerships hold the key to Africa’s future
The conversation around infrastructure in South Africa and the rest of the continent is often centred around electricity generation. While it’s a critical part, it’s not the only aspect of unlocking the economy.
Image credit: Design4business on Unsplash
To unlock inclusive and sustainable growth, we must look beyond the grid and focus on transport and energy corridors as engines of integration, competitiveness, and resilience.
These corridors connect ports to production zones, mines to markets, farms to cities, and regions to one another.
Yet many remain constrained by fragmented infrastructure, regulatory inefficiencies, and underinvestment in the systems that enable seamless connectivity.
PPP — opportunity and necessity
This is where public-private partnership (PPP) innovation becomes both an opportunity and a necessity — one that must go beyond financial structuring to align strategically with long-term development goals.
Transport and energy corridors must be reimagined as integrated systems, not isolated infrastructure projects.
A corridor is not merely a road or rail line — it is a dynamic ecosystem of logistics, mobility, energy, communication, and services.
At its best, it becomes a platform for development.
A well-designed corridor in Southern Africa could include:
- Multi-modal transport nodes linking road, rail, and inland waterways to ports and industrial centres.
- Refuelling and charging hubs offering petrol, diesel, LNG, EV charging, and hydrogen—integrated with real-time diagnostics and route planning.
- Resilient fuel storage and distribution systems that reduce response times and build buffer capacity during crises.
- Digitally enabled customs and logistics infrastructure that streamlines border crossings and tracks goods with minimal friction.
Together, these elements form the arteries of modern commerce and trade.
Systems-thinking approach
Many existing corridors remain underutilised or bottlenecked due to piecemeal, siloed, or reactive development.
What’s needed is a systems-thinking approach—one that sees corridors as platforms to advance multiple priorities simultaneously: trade facilitation, industrial development, energy access, rural inclusion, and climate adaptation.
To realise this vision, PPPs must evolve from transactional models to collaborative partnerships grounded in joint planning, shared outcomes, and long-term impact. This includes:
- Holistic corridor planning with co-created blueprints that integrate infrastructure, energy, environmental resilience, and socio-economic upliftment.
- Enabling policy environments that streamline land use, licensing, and procurement to de-risk private sector participation.
- Blended finance models that combine public capital, development finance, and private investment to fund complex, high-impact projects.
- Embedded sustainability to ensure infrastructure is climate-resilient, low-emission, and inclusive of underserved communities.
Above all, these partnerships must be built on trust and mutual accountability.
The private sector cannot operate solely for profit, and governments cannot shoulder infrastructure delivery alone.
Each actor must bring its full capability — technical expertise, policy instruments, and capital mobilisation—to the table.
Economic backbones
The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) offers a compelling backdrop.
If fully implemented, AfCFTA could boost intra-African trade by over 50%, reduce tariffs, and unlock new manufacturing and logistics opportunities.
But this promise hinges on infrastructure keeping pace.
South Africa, as a gateway economy, has both a responsibility and a strategic interest in leading corridor development — not only to serve its own industrial centres, but to deepen regional integration within SADC and beyond.
This calls for greater alignment between national infrastructure plans, such as the Strategic Integrated Projects (SIPs), and regional transport corridors and value chains.
Infrastructure & Utilities
Gautrain expansion: paving the way for South Africa's future economic growth
Olebogeng Manhe 6 Nov 2025
Corridors like the North-South (Durban to Lusaka) and the Maputo Development Corridor must be reimagined as economic backbones — supporting mobility, energy access, and digital integration along their full lengths.
Infrastructure is not neutral. It reflects our priorities and shapes our possibilities.
As such, it must be deliberate, inclusive, and transformative.
We have the tools, talent, and technologies to rewire Africa’s infrastructure future — but only if we act in concert.
This is a call for co-creation: government, industry, development partners, and communities building side by side.
About the author
Aluwani Museisi is the country chair of Shell Downstream South Africa