Across Africa, large-scale infrastructure projects are transforming economies at an unprecedented pace. Between 2010 and 2022, African ports captured an outsized share of global port investment – $13 billion, concentrated heavily in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Senegal, and Ghana. Ports, railways and energy systems are widely framed as the backbone of this growth: essential for trade, investment, and global integration. But that framing rests on a narrow assumption that infrastruct