Djalal Khimdjee, CEO of Africa50’s Principal Investment Fund, said India’s development record could help address Africa’s infrastructure needs, framing the continent’s growth as an investment opening for India.
At the NDTV World Summit 2026 in New Delhi on Oct. 22, he called India “very well positioned” to support infrastructure development across the continent. NDTV described Khimdjee as having more than 25 years of experience in infrastructure investment, executive leadership and development finance.
Khimdjee said Africa could account for 40% of the world’s population by the end of the century, while Africa and India together could make up half. He put Africa’s share of the global workforce at 60% by then and said the continent would be home to half of the world’s young people by 2050. He said those demographic trends, combined with Africa’s infrastructure needs, created an investment opportunity for India.
He credited India’s investment policies, focus on infrastructure and technology, and ability to involve private businesses with reducing poverty for hundreds of millions of people. He also placed India among the leading countries economically and said its performance across sectors had been strong over recent decades.
Khimdjee said India had about 500 GW of electricity capacity, with non-fossil sources accounting for half of installed capacity. He said India had reached its 2030 target for non-fossil sources to account for half of installed electricity capacity five years early.
India had separate electricity networks about 30 years ago, Khimdjee said. He credited the “One Nation, One Grid” initiative with bringing them into a single power network and said Africa was trying to do the same.
Khimdjee said India’s infrastructure record was a reason Africa50 signed a partnership with NTPC to develop projects in Africa.
