South Africa’s infrastructure market gained a new women-led, majority black-owned investor today as African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM), through its IDEAS Fund, and Motseng Investment Holdings launched Motseng Ideas Infrastructure Group (MIIG), a vehicle managing roughly R1 billion to back public-private projects in healthcare, government accommodation and other social assets in South Africa and across SADC, timed to refreshed PPP rules and a wider push to mobilize local institutional capital.
MIIG enters the market with an ownership profile of over 67% black shareholding and more than 57% held by black women, positioning the firm to meet South Africa’s empowerment objectives while targeting bankable, community-serving assets. The executive team cites more than four decades of combined experience in developing and operating infrastructure, and says the platform is structured to partner with government, private sponsors and local communities.
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AIIM brings scale and an established pipeline through the IDEAS Managed Fund, billed as South Africa’s largest domestic infrastructure equity fund (asset base >R26 billion) with long-running exposure to renewable energy, transport, digital and PPP assets. Motseng, led by CEO Ipeleng Mkhari, contributes a two-decade operating footprint in property and strategic assets across Southern Africa.
“AIIM remains committed to sustainable and inclusive infrastructure investment,” said Vuyo Ntoi, Co-Managing Director at AIIM. “Through MIIG, we join a platform that combines strong women and black economic empowerment credentials with proven execution capability and a balance sheet that can support long-term growth.”
“MIIG represents more than a business venture, it is a statement of intent,” added Ipeleng Mkhari. “It reflects our commitment to empowerment-driven infrastructure that meets market needs and advances meaningful black and black women ownership.”
The immediate focus is on public-private partnership (PPP) transactions in social infrastructure, including health facilities and government office accommodation. Management says MIIG will raise additional capital to expand across the SADC region, targeting opportunities where availability-based or user-pay structures can deliver predictable service levels and measurable outcomes.
The launch arrives as South Africa updates its PPP framework to speed up approvals and tighten governance, and as policymakers seek to crowd in pension, insurance and bank savings for infrastructure. Across the continent, annual investment needs are widely estimated in the USD 130–170 billion range, leaving a substantial funding gap that domestic capital and specialist managers are increasingly being asked to fill.
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MIIG’s test will be swift execution, closing its first PPP deals under the revised ruleset, and transparent reporting on jobs, supplier opportunities and service delivery. If it delivers on those metrics while scaling into SADC, the platform could become a reference point for women-led, empowerment-anchored infrastructure investing in the region.
