South Africa's Infrastructure Finance and Implementation Support Agency (IFISA) is set to commence operations on April 1, 2026. Housed at the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), IFISA brings project preparation, appraisal and public-private partnership (PPP) functions into a single agency mandated to mobilise private finance and expertise to reduce reliance on the fiscus. It comes as GTAC reports that annual fixed investment contracted by a further 2.2 per cent in 2025.
ADDRESSING SYSTEMIC DELIVERY FAILURES
The creation of IFISA follows a National Treasury review of South Africa's infrastructure delivery system. According to the Government Technical Advisory Centre's (GTAC) Bi-Annual Infrastructure Trends Report (1st Edition 2026), the country faces "systematic challenges" including poor planning, procurement bottlenecks, suboptimal project execution, and poor asset management practices.
On GTAC's infrastructure barometer, South Africa scores low for governance and planning, social and community impact, and environmental sustainability and resilience. Institutional trends from 2000 to 2021 show deterioration in government effectiveness and corruption control. GTAC notes that South Africa invests up to three times more per person than its regional peers, with gross fixed capital formation (GFCF) per capita at US$810, less than half that of Brazil (US$1,652). "These findings highlight that the country struggles to translate infrastructure investments into effective outcomes," the report states, with investments failing to deliver equitably.
ECONOMIC BACKDROP
GTAC said the largest detractors from fixed investment in 2025 were lower private-sector investments in residential and non-residential buildings and civil construction. Government's infrastructure focus is positioned as a "catalyst for faster growth and improved service delivery," per GTAC, which said this signals a more supportive investment outlook.
IFISA'S MANDATE AND OPERATIONAL SCOPE
According to the 2026 Budget Review, a review of the infrastructure delivery system concluded that project preparation, appraisal and selection should sit in a single institutional home; in line with this, the National Treasury established IFISA, which combines GTAC's PPP and Capital Projects Appraisal units, the Treasury's Neighbourhood Development Partnership Programme and the Infrastructure Fund. The agency will be housed at the DBSA. It is mandated to mobilise private finance and expertise to reduce reliance on the fiscus and improve risk allocation in infrastructure delivery, and to provide procurement support, project management, and information and data management.
The review said this single institutional home should be supported by appropriate ethical rules to manage potential conflicts of interest.
OUTLOOK
GTAC's benchmarking also shows South Africa's GFCF per capita substantially below that of Thailand (US$1,550) and Türkiye (US$3,933).
As GTAC concludes, "government’s commitment to focus on infrastructure as a catalyst for faster growth and improved service delivery signals a more supportive investment outlook".
Separately, the government raised R11.8 billion through the inaugural issuance of a sovereign infrastructure and development finance bond in December 2025, according to the Budget Review.