Smart Money – Cities Investment Forum Lead Jeremy Gorelick on financing Africa’s next generation of cities

In this Smart Money with Alishia Seckam interview, Jeremy Gorelick discusses how African cities get financed.

Gorelick is the President of Mineral Springs, a boutique consultancy with two decades of experience in municipal, infrastructure, and climate finance.

Mineral Springs serves a global client base, including the UK, EU, and South African governments, and delivers bespoke strategies across affordable housing, sustainable infrastructure, and WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene).

Gorelick is also a strategic advisor at several organisations, including the Green Finance Institute and Wellers Impact.

He leads the Cities Investment Forum, a curated, deal-oriented convening focused on accelerating investment into promising new city projects.

The Forum takes place at the New Cities Summit on 7-8 December 2026 in Waterfall City, Johannesburg.

The summit is organised by the Charter Cities Institute alongside the Waterfall City Management Company.

The interview

In this Smart Money interview, Jeremy Gorelick discusses the challenges of financing Africa’s rapidly growing cities.

He begins by highlighting Waterfall City in Johannesburg as an example of successful privately driven urban development and explains why it was selected to host the upcoming New Cities Summit.

Gorelick then discusses the huge investment required to accommodate Africa’s growing urban population.

He highlights that many promising urban development projects fail to progress beyond the planning stage because developers lack the necessary funding.

Gorelick also explains what investors look for before committing capital, including credible financial models, realistic assumptions, and the ability to generate sustainable returns.

He then shares an example of his work supporting Cape Town’s efforts to diversify its water supply following the Day Zero drought crisis.

Gorelick unpacks the challenge of balancing private investment returns with the public interest, particularly the need to include affordable housing in new urban developments.

He closes by talking about the New Cities Summit and the Cities Investment Forum, which take place on 7 and 8 December, and why they are a chance for African developers, investors, financial institutions and government representatives to meet in one place.

Register for the New Cities Summit here.

Watch the full interview below.