Africa’s digital transformation depends on robust infrastructure. Telecoms towers, fibre networks, data centres and mobile operations are now as essential as roads and power grids. While boardrooms debate the promise of AI, about 60% of Africans are still offline — so the first task is affordable connectivity for all.
Addressing handset costs is a part of the solution: the International Finance Corporation (IFC) is working across the value chain to lower prices and scale device finance. The other big need is for network-enabling infrastructure. Yet the capital needed to expand this far exceeds what banks alone can provide. Well-structured corporate bonds can help close this gap. By mobilising institutional investors and setting transparent pricing, they also help build the deep, liquid capital markets Africa needs for sustained growth.
When listed in African markets, such bonds do more than fund individual projects. They channel local savings into local growth, give pension funds and insurers productive outlets for investment, and establish market references that lower the cost of capital for future borrowers.
Locally listed bonds deepen liquidity and reduce reliance on foreign debt. Even when issued in developed markets, they broaden access to global pools of capital and reinforce governance. This is central to IFC’s market-creating mandate: drawing in private capital at scale and strengthening financial systems. By supporting corporate bond issuances — and in some cases issuing directly in local markets — IFC helps Africa’s operators secure funding on competitive terms while setting standards that benefit wider economies.
Telecoms infrastructure company Helios Towers shows how this can work. Operating more than 14,000 masts from Senegal to Tanzania, the company sold $850m (about R15bn) of five-year notes in May 2024. IFC’s anchor commitment signalled confidence and helped attract a $2.5bn order book. The refinancing reduced the company’s cost of debt. Helios continues to invest in hybrid-solar systems to cut diesel use and in the buildout of new sites to replace reliance on patchy 2G coverage.
Six months later, IHS Towers — another leading independent tower company — raised $1.2bn through a dual-tranche deal maturing in 2030 and 2031. IFC committed up to $100m, supporting debt refinancing and growth plans across Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. Axian Telecom followed in June 2025 with a $600m bond.
Anchor orders from IFC, British International Investment and other development finance institutions (DFIs) again helped reduce borrowing costs. The deal was over two times subscribed, financing mobile and broadband expansion across multiple markets.
Meanwhile, within the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU), Senegal’s Sonatel has — with IFC support — tapped domestic markets to fund network upgrades, underscoring growing domestic appetite.
With IFC’s market expertise, anchor commitments and investor networks, companies can secure competitive financing today and shape the markets and infrastructure that will drive the continent’s growth
In Rwanda, IFC itself stepped in as issuer. A 24bn Rwandan franc (about R288m) onshore bond in July 2025 raised local currency for a client’s digital-infrastructure project. The eight-year amortising bond was 1.75 times oversubscribed and priced 0.55% below the interpolated government yield. Issuing in local currency cut the client’s foreign-exchange risk and opened the way for more international borrowers to tap Rwanda’s domestic market.
This approach extends beyond telecoms. In Norway in 2023, renewable energy developer Scatec issued a 1bn Norwegian krone (about R1.77bn) green bond. IFC anchored 222m Norwegian krone, helping refinance an existing facility and free capital for new projects in emerging markets.
The same model can be applied to power networks under the World Bank Group and the African Development Bank’s Mission300 project to connect 300-million more Africans to power by 2030. Ivory Coast’s PEPT tranche 1 — listed on the BRVM stock exchange in May 2024, XOF-denominated social securitisation anchored by IFC and the Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund (EAIF) — shows how local bond markets can also finance last-mile grid connections at scale.
These transactions show why corporate bonds fit Africa’s infrastructure sectors so well. They offer flexible structures, standardised terms, longer tenors and the ability to issue in multiple currencies, attracting investors from pension funds and insurers to global emerging-market specialists and impact funds. The result is larger, longer-term financing than banks typically provide.
For Africa’s operators, the bond market is no longer niche. It is proven and scalable. With IFC’s market expertise, anchor commitments and investor networks, companies can secure competitive financing today and shape the markets and infrastructure that will drive the continent’s growth.
• Suri is IFC's Africa regional industry director: infrastructure & natural resources
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