Africa builds, Africa dreams, Africa borrows. Cranes rise in capital cities like vertical promises of modernity and the future. Roads, ports, solar power plants, dams, high-speed trains—everything seems to be shaping the map of a continent irresistibly drawn toward progress. Yet, beneath the visible momentum of these construction projects lies a more subtle equation. How can the thirst for infrastructure be reconciled with the demands of sustainable finance, still largely driven from the financial centers of the Global North?

There is much talk about green finance, the energy transition, and climate resilience, but the reality on the books remains more prosaic. Barely one in ten projects labeled sustainable in sub-Saharan Africa actually meets international environmental standards. Green bonds issued by some countries, often celebrated as major advances, sometimes serve more to improve their image than to transform reality. Western investors, for their part, prefer well-defined, low-risk projects, leaving the most vital infrastructure, such as rural roads, local power grids, and water supply systems, to be borne by already strained national budgets.

Yet another financial system that promises to combine returns and environmental awareness, but often stops short of profitability.

Yet another financial institution that proclaims its desire to make concrete greener, without truly abandoning the logic of immediate profit.

Yet another financial system that demands transparency and governance, while imposing interest rates that erode the margins of states.

Yet another financial system that distributes green labels faster than it deploys the funds needed for climate adaptation.

Yet another financial system that claims to be socially responsible, but hides behind sovereign ratings, guarantees and exchange rate risks to justify its inaction.

Major multilateral institutions, for their part, maintain a middle ground between ambition and caution. They are increasingly developing blended finance initiatives, hybrid arrangements where public and private capital are intertwined to make a project more attractive. In theory, the principle is virtuous, as it allows for the pooling of risks to attract more investment. In practice, however, African states sometimes find themselves relegated to the role of ultimate guarantor, shouldering the debts while the profits flow elsewhere.

And yet, it's not all just a facade. Solar energy projects in Bokhol, railway corridors incorporating environmental standards, and partnerships for the sustainable management of ports demonstrate that another model is possible. Emerging regional financing institutions, such as Africa50 and Shelter Afrique, are attempting to develop an approach where profitability doesn't conflict with responsibility. But these still isolated examples are struggling to alter the overall trajectory.

Because sustainable finance in Africa, for now, resembles a beautiful metaphor. A promise suspended between the imperatives of development and the dogmas of capital. It speaks of greening, inclusion, and climate justice, but it moves slowly, too slowly, in a world that is heating up faster than it is changing. Roads continue to expand, dams to rise, and debts to accumulate. Africa is building its future, but the cement it uses is still too gray to claim to be green.