Ruto at UNGA 81: Why Africa has trillions in savings but still struggles to finance its own infrastructure

A pension fund can have billions under management and still struggle to finance a power plant, railway or water project next door.

That was the central argument President William Ruto put forward in New York on Monday, September 21, 2026, during the Africa We Build High-Level Roundtable on Regulation, Risk and Reward, held on the margins of the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly.

The discussion brought together former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed, Nigeria’s Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy Taiwo Oyedele, and Samaila Zubairu, President and CEO of the Africa Finance Corporation, which convened the meeting.

Ruto’s message was blunt:

Africa’s problem is increasingly about the rules governing capital, rather than simply the amount of capital available.

Africa has enough capital

The figures cited in the address make the argument striking.

African non-bank domestic capital pools have surpassed $2 trillion, while pension and insurance assets have crossed $1 trillion.

By comparison, all external flows into Africa between 2014 and 2024 - including concessional and commercial finance - totalled about $1.7 trillion.

At the same time, official development assistance to Africa has been declining since 2020.

The implication is significant: African savings are becoming a much larger source of potential development finance even as some traditional external sources weaken.

The question, therefore, is why more of that money is not financing African infrastructure.

Pension money, as a case study

Ruto used a teacher in Eldoret to make the issue tangible.

After contributing to a pension fund for two decades, the teacher’s savings may be invested in a Treasury bill rather than a productive project such as a nearby geothermal plant.

Kenya’s pension industry, according to figures cited in the speech, holds about Sh3.2 trillion, or roughly $24.7 billion.

Around 46 percent is invested in government securities, while just 0.02 percent is in infrastructure debt.

The striking part is that Kenyan regulations permit pension funds to invest up to 10 percent in infrastructure.

Ruto’s argument is that the ceiling itself is therefore not the main obstacle.

Fund managers are responding to the risk, liquidity, regulatory and investment structures available to them.

Where government paper is easier to price and hold than a long-term infrastructure project, capital follows the safer instrument.

The cost of “African Risk”

Another part of the equation is how African investments are assessed.

Ruto called for African risk to be priced against actual African default and recovery data, rather than methodologies that may not adequately reflect local experience.

He cited a UNDP estimate that more objective ratings could save African countries as much as $74.5 billion, while stressing that the precise figure could vary.

He also called for cheaper insurance for productive assets and changes to prudential and liquidity rules that can make long-term African investments less attractive.

The fourth piece is infrastructure itself.

A pension fund cannot invest in a project that has not been structured into an investment product it is legally able to buy.

That means bankable project pipelines, credit enhancement and local-currency instruments - the financial “plumbing” needed to turn savings into roads, power plants, ports and water systems.

Kenya as the test study

Ruto also used the New York forum to present Kenya as a test case for changing how African risk is assessed.

He cited three favourable credit-rating actions since August 2025, foreign-exchange reserves of about $15 billion, and the Sh112.4 billion Kenya Pipeline IPO, which he described as the largest listing in Kenya’s history.

Kenya has also increased its equity investment in the Africa Finance Corporation by Sh3.25 billion, while an AFC regional office has been established in Nairobi.

The country’s first infrastructure fund was listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange in May, raising Sh3.4 billion.

In the speech, Ruto further pointed to the National Infrastructure Fund, signed into law in March 2026, which is designed to mobilise up to $40 billion for infrastructure without relying solely on new public debt.

His proposal at the roundtable was for Kenya to open its default and recovery data to rating agencies, insurers and regulators and allow the evidence to test existing methodologies.

He also proposed a working group reporting back at the next Africa We Build Summit with findings based on numbers rather than a political communiqué.

Africa, in the larger scope

The infrastructure challenge is enormous.

By 2050, Africa is expected to have a population approaching 2.5 billion, requiring massive expansion of power, transport and industrial systems.

Ruto’s argument at UNGA 81 was that Africa cannot finance that transformation one exceptional project at a time.

The deeper task is to make investing in productive African assets routine - so that a pension trustee can eventually buy into a Kenyan power station as readily as a Treasury bill.