A Pan-African infrastructure fund private equity firm, ARM-Harith Infrastructure Investments Limited, has raised approximately $76m in the first close of its climate transition successor fund aimed at mobilising institutional capital for infrastructure projects across Sub-Saharan Africa.
The firm said the fund, which targets a final close of $200m, is Africa’s first integrated multi-currency blended finance vehicle for infrastructure equity investments, allowing investors to commit capital in both United States dollars and local currencies through a single platform.
In a statement on Monday, ARM-Harith said the structure was designed to address one of the major challenges facing infrastructure financing in Africa: the mismatch between hard-currency investment vehicles and the local-currency revenues generated by infrastructure assets.
According to the company, the model will help reduce currency risk at the project level while encouraging greater participation by domestic institutional investors, particularly pension funds, whose liabilities are largely denominated in local currencies.
It said the first close was anchored by a combined $20m in catalytic capital from FSD Africa Investments and the African Development Bank through its Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa.
ARM-Harith said the funding would help de-risk participation by pension funds and other institutional investors while supporting efforts to unlock more domestic capital for infrastructure development across the continent.
Commenting on the development, the Chief Executive Officer of ARM-Harith, Rachel More-Oshodi, said the successor fund builds on the firm’s track record of attracting domestic institutional capital into infrastructure investments.
“This first close is both an achievement and an inflection point for ARM-Harith. With our first fund, we demonstrated that domestic institutional capital can be mobilised 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,” she said.
More-Oshodi added that the initiative would mobilise domestic savings, attract international investment and improve risk allocation across infrastructure projects.
She said, “This is a fundamental redesign, one that recognises local market realities, mobilises domestic savings, attracts international capital, and allocates risk more intelligently.”
The African Development Bank also described the first close as a significant milestone for renewable energy financing in the region.
The Manager of AfDB’s Renewable Energy Funds Division, Joao Duarte Cunha, said, “The successful first close of the ARM-Harith Successor Fund marks a major milestone for renewable energy investment in sub-Saharan Africa.
“SEFA’s catalytic participation demonstrates the African Development Bank’s commitment to unlocking long-term institutional capital and shows how blended finance can mobilise private investment into sustainable infrastructure.”
Also speaking, the Chief Investment Officer of FSD Africa Investments, Anne-Marie Chidzero, said the major challenge had been the absence of investment products designed to meet pension funds’ requirements.
“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,” she said.
According to her, the investment structure was specifically designed to enable pension funds to invest in infrastructure equity while remaining aligned with their investment objectives and obligations.
ARM-Harith said proceeds from the fund would be deployed into climate-resilient infrastructure and energy transition projects capable of generating stable returns and measurable development impact across Sub-Saharan Africa.
The company noted that its predecessor fund financed critical transport infrastructure and more than 700 megawatts of installed power capacity, creating about 22,500 jobs and helping to avoid an estimated 2.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually.
It added that the successor fund would build on this record by investing in projects that support climate resilience, regional integration and sustainable economic development across Africa.
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