{"id":558274,"date":"2026-08-04T01:54:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T01:54:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/558274\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T01:54:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T01:54:17","slug":"africa-builds-megaprojects-faster-than-ever-despite-debt-risks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/558274\/","title":{"rendered":"Africa builds \u2018megaprojects\u2019 faster than ever despite debt risks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>African nations are building major infrastructure projects at an unprecedented rate in a bid to boost energy independence and improve logistics, though commentators warn that soaring debt levels may hamper progress.<\/p>\n<p>The war in the Middle East, which supplies <a href=\"https:\/\/www.energyconnects.com\/news\/oil\/2026\/march\/iran-war-triggers-hunt-to-secure-new-fuel-supplies-in-africa\/\" class=\"_linkEmbed_1pt7l_31\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">a vast amount of Africa\u2019s fuels<\/a>, exposed the continent\u2019s reliance on energy imports, accelerating efforts to build new refineries and pipelines. <\/p>\n<p>Competition between China and the US for influence over the region has also brought in billions in infrastructure investment, ushering in a new era of \u201cmegaprojects.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>However, rising debt payments and aid cuts are squeezing the public finances of many African countries. Though that doesn\u2019t mean projects are \u201cdoomed,\u201d The Economist argued, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.economist.com\/middle-east-and-africa\/2026\/07\/23\/the-return-of-the-african-megaproject?utm_content=ed-picks-image-link-2&amp;etear=nl_africa_nl_2&amp;utm_campaign=r.africa-newsletter&amp;utm_medium=email.internal-newsletter.np&amp;utm_source=salesforce-marketing-cloud&amp;utm_term=7\/28\/2026&amp;utm_id=2220457\" class=\"_linkEmbed_1pt7l_31\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">ambition alone\u2026 will never be enough.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/a69cc05578363ac80814ab026dd94f3127ccea85-1066x466.jpg\"  alt=\"A chart showing gross capital formation as a share of GDP for middle-income nations, world average and sub-Saharan Africa.\" width=\"740\" height=\"323\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" fetchpriority=\"high\" class=\"_imageEmbed_glfao_40 _fullContentArea_glfao_44\" style=\"max-width:100%;color:transparent\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"African nations are building major infrastructure projects at an unprecedented rate in a bid to boost energy independence&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":558275,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[138,219,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-558274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=558274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}