In this month’s issue of Africa Global Funds, we met with Stephen Priestley of British International Investment (BII), the UK development finance institution (former CDC Group). The name change was first announced in November 2021 and came into effect in April 2022. Africa remains core to the organisation’s mandate. We speak about BII’s investment strategy, their approach to impact investing, opportunities and challenges on pp. 16-17.

In addition, we speak with Parvoleta Shtereva, Chief Investment Officer at Gemcorp about opportunities in the private credit space and learn more about the firm on p.14.

Furthemore, Pazani Vaitilingon, Head of Funds, IQ-EQ, Mauritius, writes about the Variable Capital Companies (VCC) Act 2022, Mauritius’ latest game-changing legislation. What will VCCs bring to the Mauritius IFC? Read on p.15.

Access to capital is probably the most significant factor in the success of growth-stage businesses. In this month’s edition we hear from Spear Capital and Norsad Capital, which think that domestic capital and foreign funds are both needed to grow businesses in Africa (p.22).

On the fundraising front, Sanlam Investment Management (SIM) has recently launched the SIM Flexible Income Fund, a retail unit trust targeted at investors with a one- to two-year time horizon. More on p.4..