Insights in the Bankability & Viability stream.
Every NPV calculation depends on a discount rate. The rate a sponsor picks is often the single most consequential assumption in a bankability workbook. Where the rate comes from, why textbook WACC often fails in African markets, and how to build a defensible rate.
The most expensive infrastructure projects in African and international markets over the past two decades are the ones that raised money and then failed. A pattern-recognition piece on the failure modes and how to detect them before they close.
Every serious bankability report has a sensitivity analysis. Most are decoration. The one slide the credit committee actually reads shows what the project is genuinely sensitive to, tested against the assumptions that could realistically move.
Every project has a positive NPV at some discount rate. Every project has an IRR. Every socio-economic evaluation has a BCR. The three metrics answer different questions, and picking the wrong one produces a defensible-looking analysis that leads to the wrong decision.
The debt service coverage ratio is the single number most lenders look at first. What it measures, how it hides trouble, what covenant thresholds actually mean in practice, and why the average across a period is often the wrong view.
Bankable projects raise money. Viable projects survive their own economics after the money is spent. The two tests are different, they use different metrics, and confusing them is why fundable projects still collapse.