The Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF) has agreed to commit GHS25m to the Injaro Ghana Venture Capital Fund (IGVCF) which is managed by Injaro Investment Advisors (IIA).

Edward Nana Yaw Koranteng, CEO of MIIF, said: “This is MIIF's first investment in the alternative asset class and we are delighted at this.”

MIIF is Ghana’s minerals sovereign fund that was established pursuant to the Minerals Income Investment Fund Act, 2018 (Act 978) as amended to receive royalties’ payments from mineral production activities in Ghana and to manage the government’s equity interest in mining companies.

According to Koranteng, the objective of MIIF, in line with President Nana Akufo Addo's vision, is to invest in the development of the entire mining eco-system or value chain which covers the mining supplies and services sector even to the micro or SME level.

“As part of our alternative investment or diversification strategy, MIIF sees this Injaro opportunity, to invest in private equity, as a conduit to support this mining sub-sector and ultimately the growth of the real economy in Ghana,” he said.

The investment strategy for IGVCF is to partner with best-in class profitable Ghanaian SMEs with strong growth potential across various sectors including Mining Support Services, Food & Agribusiness, Education, Healthcare, Inclusive Financial Services, Industrial Services (including services for the Mining and Oil and Gas sectors) as well as Light Manufacturing.

IGVCF will also promote environmental, social and governance best practices across its portfolio companies in its bid to contribute to job creation and sustained economic growth.

The Fund will make equity, quasi equity or debt investments in SMEs mainly in Ghana and also in Côte d’Ivoire.

Jerry Parkes, Managing Director of IIA, said: “The Injaro team is excited and grateful for this opportunity to work with MIIF to further entrench Private Equity as an attractive asset class which can be an effective tool for growing the real economy in Ghana while delivering long term social and financial returns for local investors.”

“Having already secured GHS127m for IGVCF primarily from local pension funds, and with a mandate from investors to grow the fund to GHS400m, the Injaro team welcomes commitments from institutional investors that want to diversify their portfolios and who are aligned with Injaro’s vision of growing the real economy in Ghana.”