Africa Global Funds’a Anna Lyudvig speaks with José Solange Francis (left), Founder-Managing Director, and Morlai Kargbo, FCCA (right), Associate-Investment Director at Hamilcar Capital, about special situations and the firm’s objectives.
The African landscape is experiencing a meaningful transformational shift as a result of the mushrooming of small and medium businesses across the continent, with more than 2,000 African start-ups – out of 3,000 – having secured investment from venture capitalists.
The South African investment community and pension funds, in particular, are sitting on the cusp of an infrastructure boom that provides an excellent opportunity for diversifying portfolios and supports the development of critical infrastructure for the country.
What’s your view on the current state of infrastructure development in Africa?
What can you expect to experience when attending AFSIC?
Husayn Sassa, Associate Director, Fund and Investor Services, and Jean Claude Permal, Executive Director, Chief Operating Officer at AXIS tell Africa Global Funds about the firm’s objectives, trends in the African PE industry and more.
In January, British International Investment (BII), the UK’s development finance institution (DFI) and impact investor, has appointed Chris Chijiutomi as MD, Head of Africa. We caught up with Mr Chijiutomi to learn more.
In September, Standard Bank and the SA SME Fund have joined other credible investors in backing venture capital firm Knife Capital’s new African Series B expansion fund, Knife Fund III.
Next year marks the 20th anniversary of the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act 53 of 2003. The financial sector has made extensive advancements in achieving parity across multiple segments, but control and ownership remains largely uninterrupted. A report published by the FSCA in 2022 states that the South African financial sector is “concentrated and interconnected with the largest banks, insurers and fund managers controlling the majority of assets”. It is against this backdrop that the sector can expect a flurry of interventions designed to accelerate the adoption of B-BBEE and promote competition - some of which are explained below.
HAVAÍC’s Rob Heath takes the long view to unpack the perceived downturn in African Venture Capital (VC) funding. Here’s what the data really means and what the future holds for this burgeoning alternative asset class in Africa.
The financial ecosystem in Africa is reaching an exciting new phase of development, especially in terms of the provision of financial services for the underbanked and unbanked. Inclusive financial institutions (IFIs) focusing on this segment of the market, and rather than traditional banks, continue to be at the vanguard of financial inclusion. For the IFI sector to continue expand, it must attract additional capital, which in turn requires commercial success.
Nick Barigye, CEO of Rwanda Finance, which runs the recently launched Kigali International Finance Centre (KIFC), tells AGF how he aims to use KIFC as a route to ensuring Rwanda is the financial gateway to Africa
Access to capital is probably the most significant factor in the success of growth-stage businesses. While investment funding is well within reach in many European countries (especially Scandinavian countries, and in Germany, Switzerland, Luxembourg and the UK), lack of access to finance hamstrings businesses in Africa in terms of their ability to expand.
