To focus solely on the shiny, state-of-the-art architecture of Nairobi’s Talanta Sports City is to miss the far grander story unfolding behind the scenes. The real triumph of Talanta is not merely that Kenya has built a world-class stadium; it is that we are witnessing a quiet revolution in how capital-starved African nations can finance large-scale national infrastructure.

For decades, the story of African infrastructure financing has followed a predictable and painful script: expensive Eurobonds, heavy demands on the Exchequer, or commercial borrowing that increases external debt and strains sovereign balance sheets. Yet the answer to our infrastructure funding gap may have been sitting right in front of us all along.