Project Preparation Support
As a central government agency responsible for coordinating and driving South Africa’s infrastructure investment programme, Infrastructure South Africa (ISA) provides project preparation support to high value infrastructure projects and programmes, to help enhance the quality and rate of infrastructure delivery and to close the country’s infrastructure gap.
The Project Preparation support provided by ISA entails the deployment of capacity to projects to bridge developmental gaps such as:
- Funding and Financing structuring support: detailing of full project/programme costs, the identification of potential financing sources and support with the funding application processes such as application to the Budget Facility for Infrastructure (BFI), Development Finance Institutions and Multilateral Development Banks.
- Technical support: undertaking technical studies, including detailed designs and specifications, environmental impact assessment, cost benefit analysis and other specialist studies to contribute to bankable feasibility and business case development.
- Legal support: project contracting structure, assessment of potential terms and conditions of relationships with potential service providers.
- Institutional/governance arrangements: stakeholder identification and engagement, institutional capacity assessment, and determination of how projects will be implemented.
Bid Window Process
On an annual basis, ISA will open the Project Preparation Bid Window process. During this period, government bodies and state-owned entities will be invited to submit their proposals for consideration and will be evaluated against the technical guidelines published on the ISA website. The first bid window opened in October 2024, and received 277 project submissions, with an estimated capital value of R322 billion. This overwhelming response to the call for proposals is testament to the urgent need for increasing project preparation support.
ISA’s Project Preparation will prioritise high value infrastructure projects that:
- Can or have already secured private, development or related financing, but require additional funding to address a viability gap,
- Have not yet secured private, development or related financing and require support to structure a financing arrangement,
- Leverage alternative funding and delivery mechanisms such as Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs), Concessions, Blended finance and similar structures.
Our Partnerships
In fulfilling our mandate to accelerate the delivery of infrastructure projects and to close the infrastructure funding gap, ISA also engages with other project preparation facilities to catalyse the existing Project Preparation grant allocations, thus, ensuring that project sponsors receive the required support to develop bankable business cases.
List of Partners
- Afreximbank
- African Development Bank (AfDB)
- Agence Française de Développement (AFD)
- British International Investment (BII)
- China Development Bank
- China EximBank
- Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA)
- European Investment Bank (EIB)
- Industrial Development Corporation (IDC)
- Infrastructure Fund (IF)
- International Finance Corporation (IFC)
- Infrastructure South Africa (ISA)
- Invest International (II)
- Japan International Corporation Agency (JICA SA)
- Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) Development Bank
- New Development Bank (NDB)
- Public Investment Corporation (PIC)
- UK Export Finance (UKEF)
- US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC)
- World Bank (WB)
Project Preparation Dashboard
Over 24 infrastructure projects are currently receiving project preparation support with an estimated capital value of R148 billion towards bankability and investment. These projects span across all three spheres of government with a geographical footprint covering multiple provinces in South Africa. The supported projects are in key priority sectors including energy, water and sanitation, transport, social infrastructure (education and health), human settlements, municipal infrastructure, industrial development zones/special economic zones, and digital Infrastructure.
