Scarcely a day goes by without the unveiling of huge infrastructure spending pledges somewhere on the continent. There is a good reason for this - if figures from the African Development Bank AfDB are to be believed, the continent needs to spend between 181bn and 221bn per year between 2023 and 2030 on infrastructure. The continent's roads, ports, utilities, communications networks and rapidly expanding urban areas all need to be dragged into the modern world in a hugely expensive game of catch-up.
And it is only natural that contractors, consultants and hangers-on all want to secure a slice of the pie and commit to these "transformative" projects.
Meanwhile, governments are taking out huge loans - frequently on unfavourable terms - in order to keep up with the expenditure they are told is necessary to keep their nations competitive.