# BuildMap > An interactive map and dashboard of announced, approved and ongoing infrastructure in > Africa, for investors, researchers and journalists. Compiled from thirteen public datasets: > 4,295 power units tracked by Global Energy Monitor, 1,683 projects financed by the African Development Bank, 890 by the World Bank, 394 financings by the Agence française de développement (AFD) and 1,615 projects paid for by Germany's development ministry (BMZ) and carried out by GIZ, KfW and others, 3,700 construction works traced in OpenStreetMap, 323 oil and gas pipeline segments from Global Energy Monitor and 81 submarine cables landing in Africa from TeleGeography, plus 2,487 infrastructure projects financed by Chinese official lenders and agencies between 2000 and 2023, from AidData, and 2,008 infrastructure projects financed by the European Union's institutions, the European Commission and the European Investment Bank, via IATI, and the 76 projects of Italy's Piano Mattei per l'Africa as the Italian Government's portal lists them, and the 133 Global Gateway flagship projects the European Commission lists in Africa, which it publishes with no amount or stage. Together they describe about 1,094 GW of generating capacity across all statuses; USD 75.1 billion of AfDB commitments, converted at 1 SDR = 1.35 USD (IMF, 9 Oct 2026), USD 98.3 billion of World Bank commitments, USD 11.8 billion of AFD commitments and USD 16.5 billion of BMZ commitments, both converted at 1 EUR = 1.1206 USD (ECB reference rate, 9 Oct 2026), each the infrastructure share of the lender's own commitment, budget support and cancelled projects left out; USD 222.2 billion of Chinese official commitments to infrastructure over 2000–2023, in constant 2023 dollars as AidData publishes them; USD 30.1 billion of European Union commitments, Commission contracts and EIB loans, converted at 1 EUR = 1.1206 USD (ECB reference rate, 9 Oct 2026); EUR 4.39 billion of stated Piano Mattei project amounts, the figures the Italian Government's portal prints, which may include other funders' shares. > Snapshot built 28 Oct 2026; data is refreshed by hand about twice a year. Made by Jacopo Ottaviani (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacopo-ottaviani/). Free to use; cite the underlying sources by name. Site: https://africa.buildmap.org/ ## Pages - [BuildMap, map](https://africa.buildmap.org/): full-screen map of the nine layers (finance holds four lenders, EU finance the Commission and the EIB, Piano Mattei Italy's plan, Global Gateway the Commission's flagship list) with filters by layer, status, country and sector, a viewport summary, a "largest in view" list, detail cards linking to each source record, optional marker clustering and Sentinel-2 satellite imagery, and a Methodology tab. The view is encoded in the URL hash, so views can be shared. - [BuildMap, dashboard view](https://africa.buildmap.org/dashboard.html): the same records as a page with KPIs, a country map, bar charts by country and sector, and a sortable table. - [Russia in Africa's infrastructure](https://africa.buildmap.org/russia/): What the open data holds on Russian money in African infrastructure: sovereign debt owed to the Russian Federation by every African government (World Bank International Debt Statistics), the energy assets with a Russian vendor or shareholder (Global Energy Monitor), Rosatom's nuclear agreements and the Bank of Russia's investment stocks, country by country. Data: https://africa.buildmap.org/data/donors/russia.json - [Turkey in Africa's infrastructure](https://africa.buildmap.org/turkey/): What the open data holds on Turkish money in Africa: Turkey's aid activities country by country from the OECD's Creditor Reporting System, net ODA by recipient, Turkish direct-investment stock by African country, sovereign debt owed to Turkey (World Bank International Debt Statistics), the power units with a Turkish owner in Global Energy Monitor's tracker, and the works that Türk Eximbank, Summa, Yapı Merkezi and Karpowership place on the map themselves. Data: https://africa.buildmap.org/data/donors/turkey.json - [Italy in Africa's infrastructure](https://africa.buildmap.org/italy/): What the open data holds on Italian money in Africa: the Italian Government's Piano Mattei project list, Italy's aid activities country by country from the OECD's Creditor Reporting System, net ODA by recipient, Italian direct-investment stock by African country, sovereign debt owed to Italy (World Bank International Debt Statistics), and the power plants, pipelines and submarine cables with Eni, Enel, Snam or Sparkle among their owners in the map's own layers. Data: https://africa.buildmap.org/data/donors/italy.json - [China in Africa's infrastructure](https://africa.buildmap.org/china/): What the open data holds on Chinese money in African infrastructure: AidData's project-level record of Chinese official commitments since 2000 country by country, lender by lender and sector by sector, what each African government owes Chinese creditors (World Bank International Debt Statistics), and the power plants, pipelines and submarine cables with a Chinese owner in the map's own layers. Data: https://africa.buildmap.org/data/donors/china.json - [The European Union in Africa's infrastructure](https://africa.buildmap.org/eu/): What the open data holds on EU money in African infrastructure: the European Commission's and the European Investment Bank's own records from IATI as the map draws them, the EU institutions' aid activities country by country from the OECD's Creditor Reporting System, net ODA by recipient, and what each African government owes the EIB and the EU budget (World Bank International Debt Statistics). Data: https://africa.buildmap.org/data/donors/eu.json - [The United States in Africa's infrastructure](https://africa.buildmap.org/usa/): What the open data holds on US money in Africa: the United States' aid activities country by country from the OECD's Creditor Reporting System, net ODA by recipient, US direct-investment stock by African country, sovereign debt owed to the United States (World Bank International Debt Statistics), and the pipelines, power units and cables with a US owner in the map's own layers. Data: https://africa.buildmap.org/data/donors/usa.json - [Germany in Africa's infrastructure](https://africa.buildmap.org/germany/): What the open data holds on German money in Africa: Germany's aid activities country by country from the OECD's Creditor Reporting System, net ODA by recipient, German direct-investment stock by African country, sovereign debt owed to Germany (World Bank International Debt Statistics), and the power units with a German owner in the map's own layers. Data: https://africa.buildmap.org/data/donors/germany.json - [France in Africa's infrastructure](https://africa.buildmap.org/france/): What the open data holds on French money in Africa: France's aid activities country by country from the OECD's Creditor Reporting System, net ODA by recipient, French direct-investment stock by African country, sovereign debt owed to France (World Bank International Debt Statistics), and the power plants, pipelines and cables with TotalEnergies, EDF, Engie or Orange among their owners. Data: https://africa.buildmap.org/data/donors/france.json - [Spain in Africa's infrastructure](https://africa.buildmap.org/spain/): What the open data holds on Spanish money in Africa: Spain's aid activities country by country from the OECD's Creditor Reporting System, net ODA by recipient, Spanish direct-investment stock by African country, sovereign debt owed to Spain (World Bank International Debt Statistics), and the power plants and pipelines with Acciona, Naturgy or Repsol among their owners. Data: https://africa.buildmap.org/data/donors/spain.json - [Japan in Africa's infrastructure](https://africa.buildmap.org/japan/): What the open data holds on Japanese money in Africa: Japan's aid activities country by country from the OECD's Creditor Reporting System, JICA's loans among them, net ODA by recipient, Japanese direct-investment stock, sovereign debt owed to Japan (World Bank International Debt Statistics), and the power plants with a Japanese owner in the map's own layers. Data: https://africa.buildmap.org/data/donors/japan.json - [The Nordic countries in Africa's infrastructure](https://africa.buildmap.org/nordics/): What the open data holds on Nordic money in Africa, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden together: their aid activities country by country from the OECD's Creditor Reporting System, net ODA by recipient, direct-investment stock, sovereign debt owed to the five (World Bank International Debt Statistics), and the power plants with Scatec, Norfund or Equinor among their owners. Data: https://africa.buildmap.org/data/donors/nordics.json - [The Gulf states in Africa's infrastructure](https://africa.buildmap.org/gulf/): What the open data holds on Gulf money in Africa, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar together: their aid activities country by country from the OECD's Creditor Reporting System, net ODA by recipient, sovereign debt owed to the four states and to the Gulf-based development funds (World Bank International Debt Statistics), and the power plants, pipelines and cables with ACWA Power, AMEA Power, Masdar, TAQA or the Gulf carriers among their owners. Data: https://africa.buildmap.org/data/donors/gulf.json - [Debt: who African governments owe, creditor by creditor](https://africa.buildmap.org/debt/): World Bank International Debt Statistics by creditor, with a card on the dashboard. Data: https://africa.buildmap.org/data/debt.json - [Compare the lenders](https://africa.buildmap.org/compare/): the seven lender profiles side by side, with filters by lender, region or country, year and measure: where each one's money goes (small-multiple maps and a who-leads-where map), what it funds (sector mix), how it is lent (grants, loans, delivery channels, concentration) and how its exposure moved since 2000. Data: https://africa.buildmap.org/data/compare.json - [Africa's strategic corridors](https://africa.buildmap.org/corridors/): a hand-kept register of Africa's main cross-border transport and energy corridors (LAPSSET, Lobito, TAZARA, the standard gauge railways, EACOP, the Saharan and Atlantic gas pipelines and others), on one map, piece by piece, with each piece's stage and who lends for, owns and builds it, every line sourced. Data: https://africa.buildmap.org/data/corridors.json - [Global Gateway in Africa](https://africa.buildmap.org/global-gateway/): the European Union's Global Gateway flagship projects as the European Commission lists them, with no amount or stage since it publishes none: where they are, their area of partnership, the Team Europe members named behind each, the Commission's investment tracker, and the Commission's contracts and EIB operations on the map that name the same works, paired by hand and kept apart. Data: https://africa.buildmap.org/data/global_gateway.geojson ## Data The compiled payload the map draws, one JSON with column-wise layers: https://africa.buildmap.org/data/map.json. Fetch dates, release names and record counts: https://africa.buildmap.org/data/meta.json. The raw layers as GeoJSON: - [Global Energy Monitor](https://globalenergymonitor.org/projects/global-integrated-power-tracker/): Global Integrated Power Tracker, release 2026-09. 4,295 records, data as of 24 Sep 2026, licence CC BY 4.0. GeoJSON: https://africa.buildmap.org/data/gem_power_assets.geojson - [African Development Bank](https://d-portal.iatistandard.org/ctrack.html?publisher=XM-DAC-46002#view=main): IATI 2.03 activity files, 57 datasets (country, multinational and non-sovereign files). 1,683 records, data as of 14 Oct 2026, licence CC BY (per the IATI Registry). GeoJSON: https://africa.buildmap.org/data/iati_afdb_finance.geojson - [World Bank](https://d-portal.iatistandard.org/ctrack.html?publisher=44000#view=main): IATI 2.03 activity files, 52 African country and regional datasets. 890 records, data as of 14 Oct 2026, licence CC BY 4.0. GeoJSON: https://africa.buildmap.org/data/iati_worldbank_finance.geojson - [Agence française de développement](https://d-portal.iatistandard.org/ctrack.html?publisher=FR-3#view=main): IATI 2.03 activity files, 44 African country datasets (the financings under each project). 394 records, data as of 22 Oct 2026, licence Licence Ouverte / Open Licence. GeoJSON: https://africa.buildmap.org/data/iati_afd_finance.geojson - [BMZ (German development ministry)](https://d-portal.iatistandard.org/ctrack.html?publisher=DE-1#view=main): IATI 2.03 activity files, 50 African country datasets (every project BMZ pays for, with the agency that carries it out: GIZ, KfW or another). 1,615 records, data as of 22 Oct 2026, licence CC BY (per the IATI Registry). GeoJSON: https://africa.buildmap.org/data/iati_bmz_finance.geojson - [OpenStreetMap](https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright): Overpass API, significant road/rail/air classes. 3,700 records, data as of 14 Oct 2026, licence ODbL 1.0. GeoJSON: https://africa.buildmap.org/data/osm_construction.geojson - [Global Energy Monitor](https://globalenergymonitor.org/projects/global-gas-infrastructure-tracker/): Global Gas and Global Oil Infrastructure Trackers, map files GGIT 2025-11 · GOIT 2026-07. 323 records, data as of 19 Mar 2026, licence CC BY 4.0. GeoJSON: https://africa.buildmap.org/data/gem_oil_gas_pipelines.geojson - [TeleGeography](https://www.submarinecablemap.com/): Submarine Cable Map, cables with an African landing point. 81 records, data as of 14 Oct 2026, licence © TeleGeography (map CC BY-SA 4.0). Not offered as a download (the publisher's terms): see https://www.submarinecablemap.com/ - [AidData](https://www.aiddata.org/data/chinas-global-loans-and-grants-dataset-1-0): CLG-Global 1.0 · locations from GCDF 3.0 and GeoGCDF v3.0.1, official commitments to infrastructure 2000–2023, footprints from OpenStreetMap. 2,487 records, data as of Nov 2025 · to 2023, licence ODC-By 1.0 (footprints ODbL). GeoJSON: https://africa.buildmap.org/data/aiddata_china_finance.geojson - [European Union](https://d-portal.iatistandard.org/ctrack.html?publisher=XI-IATI-EC_INTPA#view=main): IATI 2.03 activity files of the European Commission (DG INTPA and DG NEAR, 61 African country and regional datasets) and the European Investment Bank's global file (IATI 2.02). 2,008 records, data as of 30 Jan 2025, licence CC BY 4.0 (Commission), attribution (EIB). GeoJSON: https://africa.buildmap.org/data/iati_eu_finance.geojson - [Italian Government](https://www.governo.it/en/piano-mattei/progetti/): Piano Mattei per l'Africa project portal (Presidency of the Council of Ministers), one page per project, read in its Italian and English versions. 76 records, data as of 14 Oct 2026, licence CC BY 3.0 IT (gazetteer ODbL). GeoJSON: https://africa.buildmap.org/data/piano_mattei.geojson - [European Commission, Global Gateway](https://international-partnerships.ec.europa.eu/policies/global-gateway/global-gateway-projects_en): Global Gateway flagship projects: the data file behind the map on the Commission's Global Gateway page and each flagship's page (countries, area of partnership, Team Europe members, milestones); the Commission publishes no amount or stage. 133 records, data as of 24 Oct 2026, licence CC BY 4.0. GeoJSON: https://africa.buildmap.org/data/global_gateway.geojson Country outlines are Natural Earth (1:10m on the map, 1:110m on the dashboard). The satellite layer is EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless (CC BY-NC-SA), site build only, off by default. ## How to read it - The sources share no project identifier. They are separate layers, never added into one project cost: an AfDB-financed power plant can legitimately appear in several. - Two maps, each with its own filters: Projects, for the works at every stage, and Funding, for the lenders' records of their loans and grants at every stage. - Two sets of words for the same five steps: a status for the works (announced, approved, under construction, operating, stalled) and a stage for a lender's record (pipeline, committed, disbursing, closed, cancelled). Closed means the money was spent, not that the works run. - Five shared statuses. Announced: GEM announced, IATI status 1, OSM proposed. Approved: GEM pre-construction (permits, land or finance still being sought), an AfDB activity still at IATI status 1 whose commitment is on record (past board approval), AidData "Pipeline: Commitment", the Piano Mattei portal's "approved". Under construction: GEM construction, IATI status 2, OSM construction. Operating: GEM operating, IATI 3-4. Stalled: GEM cancelled/shelved/mothballed, IATI 5-6. Pipelines: GEM proposed is announced, construction, operating, shelved/cancelled as stalled. Submarine cables: TeleGeography "in service" is operating; "planned" is under construction when the ready-for-service year is no later than the year after the snapshot, otherwise announced. Chinese finance (AidData): "Pipeline: Commitment" is approved, "Implementation" is under construction, "Completion" is operating, "Suspended" and "Cancelled" are stalled; pledges (MoUs, letters of intent), umbrella agreements and loans that buy a stake are left out, so the layer has no announced records and no double-counted money. EU finance: IATI statuses as for AfDB (1 announced, 2 under construction, 3-4 operating, 5-6 stalled); a Commission financing decision still in the pipeline is an announced record. Piano Mattei: the portal's progress stage, "identified" and "formulated" are announced, "approved" is approved, "ongoing" is under construction, "completed" is operating; the portal has no cancelled stage. Global Gateway flagships: the Commission publishes no stage, so they carry none and show only while every stage is selected. - Shape is source, colour is status, size is scale: circles are power units sized by MW, squares are AfDB projects and diamonds World Bank projects, crosses AFD financings, inverted triangles BMZ projects, all sized by commitment, thin lines are construction ways as traced, haloed lines are pipeline routes, lines ending in dots are submarine cables with their African landing points, triangles are Chinese-financed projects sized by commitment, with the project's OpenStreetMap footprint drawn as a thin outline where AidData geocoded it precisely, stars are EU-financed records (European Commission contracts and decisions, EIB operations) sized by commitment, hexagons are Piano Mattei projects sized by the amount the Italian Government's portal states, pentagons are Global Gateway flagships, all one size and in a neutral colour, since the Commission publishes no amount or stage. Dashed lines are not yet built. - Amounts are commitments (IATI transaction type 2), counted as the infrastructure share of the lender's own commitment by its own sector percentages (and, for the EIB, the African share by its recipient percentages). Left out: budget support (IATI aid-type A01/A02), the borrowing government's counterpart funds that the AfDB files beside its own, EIB fund investments and credit lines, EIB operations funded by the Commission or a member state, and the money of cancelled or suspended records, which stay on the map. Cards show the lender's own figure beside the counted one. AfDB publishes in SDR, converted at a fixed, stated rate: 1 SDR = 1.35 USD (IMF, 9 Oct 2026). The World Bank publishes in USD, taken as is. AidData's Chinese commitments are in constant 2023 US dollars, as published, and are never added to the IATI figures. The EU institutions publish in euros, converted at a fixed, stated rate: 1 EUR = 1.1206 USD (ECB reference rate, 9 Oct 2026); a Commission contract carries the contracted amount, a financing decision with no contract yet its whole envelope, once however many country copies repeat it, an EIB operation the signed amount (the Bank's file repeats each commitment transaction per tranche record; the distinct ones are summed). AFD, France's development agency, publishes in euros too, converted at the same rate; one AFD record is one financing (a loan or a grant) under a project, and its policy loans, which it files as project aid, are left out as budget support by their own words ("financement budgétaire", "prêt de politique publique"). Germany's development ministry BMZ publishes in euros too, converted at the same rate; one BMZ record is one project it pays for, under the agency that carries it out (GIZ, KfW, or an NGO, church or UN agency), and every one is placed at its country's centre, since BMZ gives only the capital, where the agreement is made. Piano Mattei amounts are the figure the portal prints for each project, in euros as stated, converted at the same rate; the portal does not say whether a figure is Italy's share or the whole project's value, so they are shown on their own and never added to the lenders' commitments. ## Limits - Money is two multilateral lenders, AfDB and the World Bank, France's development agency AFD, Germany's development ministry BMZ, the European Union's institutions (the Commission and the EIB, each publishing its own share to IATI), plus Chinese official finance as AidData reconstructs it from public sources. Private, domestic-budget, other EU member states' bilateral and other-lender finance is not here. Read totals as each lender's exposure, not as investment in Africa. Each lender's total is shown on its own line and never added into one project cost, and the Piano Mattei figures are not added to any of them. - The Piano Mattei layer is the Italian Government's own list of the plan's projects, all of them, not an infrastructure subset: 40 of the 76 carry the education, training and culture pillar. Narrow by sector to keep the ones that build something. The portal publishes no coordinates: a record sits on the place its description names (coordinates from OpenStreetMap), on the country's point, or, for a programme across several countries, at one Africa-wide point for the whole layer (the mean of the plan's partner countries' points, in the Central African Republic), which is not a site. - The Global Gateway layer is the European Commission's own list of the 133 flagships it names in the region, read from the data file behind the map on its Global Gateway page and from each flagship's page (countries, area of partnership, the Team Europe members involved, milestones). It carries no amount and no stage, so nothing is summed and no status is shown; the list is not exhaustive by the Commission's own word. A flagship sits at its country's point, or, for several countries or none, at the Commission's regional point, in Chad. The contracts behind some flagships are in the EU layer; the two share no identifier. - The EU layer is the Commission's contracts (one record per grant, delegation agreement or works contract under a financing decision; a decision is a record only when none of its contracts is published yet) and the EIB's operations. The Commission's points are either a named place or the country's default point; the EIB publishes no locations, so its records sit at the country's point; Africa-wide programmes sit at the Commission's regional point, in Chad. - The Chinese layer is AidData's China's Global Loans and Grants Dataset 1.0 (November 2025): commitments made 2000-2023 and their implementation to 2025. CLG 1.0 publishes no locations; records it carries over from AidData's GCDF 3.0 keep that release's location and footprint, and the 157 records new in CLG 1.0 sit at their country's centre. It says where Chinese money went, not what China is financing now. Only projects AidData flags as physical infrastructure are kept, which includes infrastructure loans secured on oil or mineral exports; about 24% have no published location and sit at their country's centre. - About 42% of AfDB locations are approximate (a named town or a country or region centroid). The World Bank marks every location approximate and states its class: site, populated place or administrative region. The pages say which for each record. - OpenStreetMap presence is mapper-driven: absence of a road is not evidence that none is being built. The layer is filtered to motorway-to-secondary roads, rail and airports. - Energy and connectivity are over-represented: no comparable open project tracker exists for ports, water or electricity transmission. Pipeline segments without a usable route (about a third of GEM's African segments) are not drawn. - Somaliland and Western Sahara are drawn as Natural Earth draws them, as separate polygons; that is the boundary dataset's choice, not a position taken here. Natural Earth follows the line of control: the part of Western Sahara that Morocco administers lies inside Morocco's shape, so works placed by their coordinates there count as Morocco, while power units follow Global Energy Monitor's own country field. ## Optional - [Global Energy Monitor, Global Integrated Power Tracker](https://globalenergymonitor.org/projects/global-integrated-power-tracker/) - [African Development Bank on d-portal, IATI's data explorer](https://d-portal.iatistandard.org/ctrack.html?publisher=XM-DAC-46002#view=main) - [European Commission, DG International Partnerships](https://d-portal.iatistandard.org/ctrack.html?publisher=XI-IATI-EC_INTPA#view=main), [DG Neighbourhood and Enlargement](https://d-portal.iatistandard.org/ctrack.html?publisher=XI-IATI-EC_NEAR#view=main) and the [European Investment Bank](https://d-portal.iatistandard.org/ctrack.html?publisher=XM-DAC-918-3#view=main) on d-portal - [Piano Mattei per l'Africa, project portal of the Italian Government](https://www.governo.it/en/piano-mattei/progetti/) - [Global Gateway flagship projects, European Commission](https://international-partnerships.ec.europa.eu/policies/global-gateway/global-gateway-projects_en) - [AidData, Global Chinese Development Finance Dataset 3.0](https://www.aiddata.org/data/aiddatas-global-chinese-development-finance-dataset-version-3-0) and its [geospatial companion on GitHub](https://github.com/aiddata/gcdf-geospatial-data) - [OpenStreetMap copyright and licence](https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright) - [Natural Earth](https://www.naturalearthdata.com/)