Governance and Risk in African Markets
Session Chair: Mr. Vincent Rouget
Governance risk is rarely the reason investors give for saying no, but it is often the reason a deal takes longer, costs more or never reaches financial close. Perception indices, due diligence reports and local reputation all feed into how risk is priced. Yet investors and governments often talk past each other: reforms that are significant for a public institution may not be visible to a fund manager in London, Nairobi or Oslo, and the signals investors rely on may lag real progress on the ground.
This session will bring together perspectives from private credit, infrastructure development, public-sector governance and political-risk advisory to examine what creates genuine investment confidence. How do investors distinguish manageable risk from a fundamental deal-breaker? What turns an infrastructure opportunity into a bankable project? What evidence makes a local partner, sponsor or public commitment credible? And how can governments demonstrate progress in ways that influence actual investment decisions? The goal is a practical conversation on what investors actually look for, what governments and companies can credibly show, and how the gap between the two can be narrowed.