Africa Must Fix Market Structures to Unlock Global Capital – 3i Summit Speakers
Africa’s push to attract long-term global investment will depend less on opportunity and more on fixing market structures, particularly liquidity, trust, and regulatory certainty, speakers at the 3i Africa Summit 2026 have said.
Panellists at a session on “Building Functional Capital Markets: Global Investment, Liquidity, and Africa’s Path to Scale” warned that while investor interest in Africa remains strong, weak financial market structures continue to limit large-scale capital inflows.
The discussion brought together Joyce Boakye of the Ghana Stock Exchange, Darren Johnson, Rosa Whitaker, and other financial and legal experts.
Speakers agreed that Africa is not short of capital or investment opportunities. However, the continent continues to account for only a small share of global portfolio allocations due to structural inefficiencies.
Investors, they noted, are guided by practical considerations such as liquidity, transparency, and the ease of entering and exiting markets, not just high-growth potential.
“There is a lot of money that wants to come to Africa, but the structures must inspire confidence,” Johnson said, pointing to challenges including limited liquidity, weak currency hedging systems, inconsistent disclosure standards and difficulties in repatriating funds.
Highlighting Ghana’s progress, Boakye said the Ghana Stock Exchange has broadened its product offerings to include equities, debt instruments, green and social bonds, and commercial paper.
These initiatives, she explained, are aimed at deepening the market, attracting institutional investors, and creating more avenues for businesses to raise long-term capital.
“We are positioning the exchange to become the preferred platform for raising capital,” she said, adding that efforts are ongoing to channel pension funds into productive sectors of the economy.
Whitaker of The Whitaker Group argued that Africa faces a “data translation problem”, where investment opportunities are not packaged in ways that global investors can easily interpret.
She called for stronger international engagement, especially in the United States, to unlock pension and institutional capital, while also advocating for innovative financing models such as tokenisation and fractional ownership.
“Africa’s next frontier is not just attracting capital. It is expanding what counts as capital and who can access it,” she said.
Panellists stressed the importance of regulatory frameworks that support innovation while ensuring investor protection. Ghana’s efforts in developing policies around digital assets, fintech innovation, and regulatory sandboxes were highlighted as positive steps.
The summit itself, organised by the Bank of Ghana and Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems, with support from partners including MTN Group and the Global Finance & Technology Network, continues to serve as a platform for aligning policy, investment and innovation across Africa’s financial ecosystem.
Held in Accra under the theme “The Next Frontier: Shaping Africa’s Integrated Fintech Future”, the summit is focusing on mobilising capital, strengthening financial systems, and advancing digital integration across the continent.
For speakers, the message was clear: Africa’s growth story will not be defined by how much capital it attracts but by how effectively it builds markets capable of absorbing that capital at scale.
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