African SWFs manage $400 billion and are actively seeking private co-investors. Gulf capital is already at the table. Here is how Black operators get in.
African countries collectively operate 36 sovereign wealth funds and 16 public pension funds, managing a combined $400 billion in assets — a figure representing a 76% rise in assets under management over the past decade and a 54% increase in the number of sovereign investors across the continent.
By December 2025, African state-owned entities — including central banks, SWFs, and public pension funds — crossed a milestone approaching $1 trillion in total state-managed assets, according to the sovereign fund monitoring organization GlobalSWF.
Five new sovereign wealth funds were established on the continent in 2025 alone: in the DRC, Eswatini, Burkina Faso, and Nigeria's Oyo state.
These institutions are not holding cash.
