Nation Media Group Staff Retirement Benefits Scheme, through its fund manager STANLIB Kenya, has invested $1m (Sh91m) in Ascent Rift Valley Fund, an East Africa-focused private equity fund.

Wallace Kantai, Trustee of the NMG Fund, said: “We’re proud of signing the deal with Ascent Capital. It opens up a new investment class for us, which will help us generate good returns for our members. We are also confident that this is the first of many investments of this kind by our fund.”

ARVF is the only local private equity fund to continually unlock investment from local pension funds.

In July 2014, Ascent announced the first close of the Ascent Rift Valley Fund (ARVF), which raised $50m to be invested in growth enterprises in Uganda, Ethiopia and Kenya.

At the first close Kenya Power and Lighting Company pension fund (KPLC) committed to invest $4m, making it the first pension fund in East African private equity.

Other investors in the fund include Norfund (Government of Norway), OeEB (Government of Austria), family offices and institutional investors including pension funds.

David Owino, Ascent’s Partner, said that by investing in private equity as an alternative asset class, pension funds would now be able to access an interesting mix of investment opportunities within the small and medium enterprises (SME) market in East Africa that are currently inaccessible to them and also diversify their investment risks.

“One of the key advantages that PE is offering pension funds is a mix of investment opportunities managed by seasoned investment professionals. We have a knowledgeable, hands on, operational savvy team with experience in identifying opportunities and creating sustainable value,” he said.

The Ascent Rift Valley Fund will invest between $1m and $10m in 10 to 12 fast-growing enterprises across seven countries with the majority of investments made in Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia.

Earlier this month, ARVF made its inaugural investment in Medpharm Holdings Africa, a leading medical diagnostic laboratory with operations in Ethiopia and expansion ambitions in the Greater East Africa region.

Owino said that the majority of investments will be between $3m and $7m over a period of five to ten years.

“Ascent will leverage its on the ground presence and market expertise to offer its local investors a wide investment portfolio in various industries in the consumer sector in non-traditional investment destinations,” he said.