By the AVCA - African Private Capital Association
Africa's 38 coastal states - spanning more than 30,000 kilometres of shoreline - support 50 million jobs and c.$300 billion in annual economic activity. The blue economy is a fundamental artillery of economic activity. In addition to providing jobs, blue economies affect food security, and biodiversity - earthly matter hinges on the ocean’s health and vitality.
More than 90 per cent of Africa’s trade moves by sea, yet much of the continent’s coastline remains underinvested and economically underutilised.
The World Bank and Standard Chartered estimate that the continent will require roughly $70 billion in marine investment annually by 2030, spanning ports, fisheries, aquaculture, logistics, coastal resilience, and maritime infrastructure to leverage its potential.
Current investment flows remain far below that level. As global capital increasingly moves into blue economies and nature-linked infrastructure, Africa risks missing a major commercial and development opportunity unless investment can be mobilised at the speed and scale required.
For example, the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) recently joined an investor consortium, in partnership with the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA), to close the final funding gap for the $137 million Takoradi Floating Dock Project in Ghana. Located 225km from Accra, Project Shiprite will develop, build, and operate a world-class, commercial-scale ship repair and dry-docking facility in the Gulf of Guinea. It demonstrates how international and domestic investors can forge public-private partnerships to create jobs in Africa and business opportunities for UK shipping and logistics firms.
Beyond improving operational efficiency, the project is expected to strengthen local capacity, reduce vessel downtime, retain foreign exchange within the region, and contribute to lower emissions by reducing long-distance voyages for ship repairs. Africa's blue economy is not simply a sub-theme of climate finance. It is increasingly becoming a development strategy in its own right.
Economic growth fueledfuelled by ocean-linked investments can accelerate delivery on the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to integrate markets, build cross-border transport corridors, and reinforce the commercial value of intra-African trade.
Initiatives such as the African Union’s Great Blue Wall, aim to protect and restore 30% of the Western Indian Ocean by 2030 by connecting marine conservation zones with sustainable blue economic projectseconomyprojects, reversing nature loss and improving the livelihoods of over 70 million coastal people.
By creating interconnected protected and conserved marine areas seascapes to counteract the effects of climate change and global warming in the Western Indian Ocean region, it unlocks the potential of the blue economy to become the driver of nature conservation and sustainable development outcomes - another sign of what is achievable with intent.
Many Asia–Europe services now avoid the Red Sea and Suez Canal for a rise in routing around the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, which is capturing global container traffic as more vessel calls lead to business in fueling, repairs, and logistics services, which increase port revenues.
Port Louis, in Mauritius, is emerging as an important logistical hub in the Indian Ocean, as ships avoid Middle Eastern chokepoints. The port has experienced a notable surge in unscheduled arrivals, with marine bunker calls and fuel volumes rising by over 40%.
The average arrivals for containers across all five main ports around the Cape - Maputo, Durban, Port Elizabeth (Gqeberha), Cape Town and Walvis Bay - climbed 21% since the first strikes against Iran on February 28. The week commencing April 6 registered the highest numbers with a 71% increase above the pre-conflict weekly average.
Africa has an opportunity to take a leadership stance in shaping how blue economy investment is structured and scaled. Closing the $70 billion annual marine investment gap presents a huge investment opportunity for investors that requires stronger cooperation between governments and the private sector, international and local capital, and philanthropic finance to drive greater use of blended finance, blue bonds and other financial instruments capable of mobilising and multiplying finance.
Earlier this year, the Trafigura-backed Miombo Restoration Alliance announced investments totalling over $1 billion in four large-scale carbon removal and woodland restoration projects across Mozambique, Zambia, Tanzania, and Malawi. Private and development finance in natural capital is undeniably scaling up, but the market remains nascent, and more collaboration and financial innovation is imperative to move concepts to creation.
Climate Asset Management closed a $445 million Nature-Based Carbon Fund in late 2024 and is now directing significant allocations to African forest and rangeland restoration. More structures are beginning to emerge, as debt-for-nature swaps, blue bonds and blended finance structures are being increasingly deployed.
However, the market remains constrained by a significant gap between ambition, potential and bankability. Investors continue to cite a shortage of investable projects, fragmented standards, weak domestic capital markets and currency risk as key barriers to scale. Voluntary carbon markets remain volatile, biodiversity credit frameworks are still evolving, and many projects struggle to aggregate fragmented local initiatives into investment-ready platforms.
Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) can expand blended finance models to de-risk private investments and aggregate smaller projects for institutional investors, as exemplified by the Mangrove Breakthrough initiative. Governments can exercise progressive power to implement policies that incentivise private investment in the blue economy through tax breaks, subsidies, and high-integrity carbon markets such as the Delta Blue Carbon initiative.
The race to finance Africa’s blue economy has certainly begun, but more work is needed to lift off to seize the scale of Africa’s opportunity. The African Union projects the sector could reach $405 billion and 57 million jobs by 2030. Collaboration among the public, private, and development sectors is essential to shape the markets, platforms, and projects that generate clean African growth at scale.