UNLOCKING AFRICA'S POTENTIAL : Imagine driving into a capital city whose airport gleams with new glass and steel, where digital check-in kiosks stand polished and tall. Now imagine stepping into the parking structure two years after its grand opening — cracked concrete, malfunctioning elevators, drainage channels choked with debris, lighting fixtures that have gone dark. The airport was built. The airport was not maintained. This is not a hypothetical. Variations of this story play out across Sub-Saharan Africa every year — in hospitals, roads, government buildings, water treatment plants, and power stations. It represents what the authors call the paradox of African infrastructure progress: the ability to build, paired with the persistent failure to sustain.