ARM-Harith Infrastructure Investments has reached a first close of approximately US$76 million for its climate transition fund, marking a significant step in efforts to mobilize African institutional capital for infrastructure investment across the continent.
The fund, which is targeting US$200 million at final close, introduces a structure rarely seen in African infrastructure finance: a blended, multi-currency platform that combines both US dollar and local currency capital within a single fund. The approach is designed to address one of the longstanding challenges facing infrastructure investment in Africa – the mismatch between foreign currency funding and local currency revenues generated by infrastructure assets.
For Africa’s digital infrastructure sector, the development carries broader significance beyond energy and climate investments.
One of the major constraints to scaling data centers, fiber networks, cloud infrastructure, and digital connectivity projects across the continent has been access to long-term local capital. While Africa’s pension funds collectively manage hundreds of billions of dollars in assets, only a small fraction is invested directly into infrastructure, largely due to concerns around currency risk, liquidity, and investment structures.
ARM-Harith’s latest fund seeks to bridge that gap.
By allowing domestic institutional investors to participate through local currency exposure while enabling international investors to maintain US dollar positions, the structure aims to align investment vehicles more closely with the realities of African infrastructure markets.
The first close was anchored by US$20 million in catalytic capital from the African Development Bank’s Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA) and FSD Africa Investments (FSDAi), with both institutions positioning the fund as a model for unlocking larger pools of domestic institutional capital.
“This first close is both an achievement and an inflection point for ARM-Harith,” said Rachel More-Oshodi, Chief Executive Officer of ARM-Harith.
“With our first fund, we demonstrated that domestic institutional capital can be mobilized into infrastructure equity. With this successor fund, we are building on that foundation by bringing local and hard-currency capital together within a single platform – better aligning the structure of the capital with the realities of African infrastructure assets.”
According to More-Oshodi, the objective is not simply to raise capital but to redesign how infrastructure projects are financed across Africa.
“This is a fundamental redesign: one that recognizes local market realities, mobilizes domestic savings, attracts international capital, and allocates risk more intelligently,” she said.
The fund will invest in climate-resilient infrastructure assets across Sub-Saharan Africa, focusing on projects capable of delivering both commercial returns and measurable development impact.
For Africa’s infrastructure ecosystem, the announcement highlights a broader shift underway.
Governments, development finance institutions, and private investors are increasingly recognizing that the continent’s infrastructure gap cannot be closed through foreign capital alone. Long-term domestic savings – particularly pension assets – will need to play a larger role in financing critical infrastructure, including energy, transport, telecommunications, and digital infrastructure.
The challenge has traditionally been structural.
“The constraint has never been capital itself, but the absence of investment products structured to meet pension funds’ liability-matching needs, particularly around tenure, risk allocation, and currency alignment,” said Anne-Marie Chidzero, Chief Investment Officer at FSD Africa Investments.
“Our investment structure was designed to bridge that gap, enabling pension funds to participate in infrastructure equity while remaining fully aligned with their investment objectives and obligations.” The African Development Bank echoed that position, describing the fund’s first close as an important milestone in expanding private capital participation in infrastructure development.
“The successful first close of the ARM-Harith Successor Fund marks a major milestone for renewable energy investment in Sub-Saharan Africa,” said Joao Duarte Cunha, Manager of the African Development Bank’s Renewable Energy Funds Division.
The fund builds on ARM-Harith’s previous infrastructure investment platform, which financed transport projects and more than 700MW of installed power capacity across Africa. According to the company, those investments supported approximately 22,500 jobs and contributed to the avoidance of an estimated 2.6 million tonnes of carbon emissions annually.
For Africa’s digital infrastructure sector, the implications may be equally important.
As governments push for greater investment in data centers, terrestrial fiber, cloud infrastructure, and AI-ready facilities, the availability of local institutional capital is increasingly viewed as a critical enabler. Industry stakeholders have long argued that pension funds, sovereign wealth vehicles, and domestic institutional investors will need to become more active participants if infrastructure deployment is to scale sustainably.
ARM-Harith’s latest fund represents one of the clearest attempts yet to create an investment structure capable of bringing that capital into the market.
The broader question now is whether similar models can be replicated across other infrastructure segments, including digital infrastructure, where long-term capital requirements continue to outpace available financing options.
As Africa enters a new phase of infrastructure development, the ability to mobilize domestic savings at scale may prove just as important as attracting foreign investment. The first close of ARM-Harith’s climate transition fund suggests that the architecture for doing so is beginning to take shape.
