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African Entrepreneurship
- Female-led and female-founded ventures attracted even less funding in 2022 than they had in 2021.
- Female-led start-ups in Africa have raised $188m (4%) in 2022, while male-led ventures raised $4.6bn (96%).
- The number of $100k+ deals announced by female-led start-ups has also seen a YoY decrease, (128 in 2022 vs. 141 in 2021) and relatively (13% vs. 16%).
Female-led and female-founded ventures attracted even less funding in 2022 than they had in 2021, latest data from Africa’s The Big Deal shows.
According to the report, female-led start-ups in Africa have raised $188m (4%) in 2022, while male-led ventures raised $4.6bn (96%). In other words, 25x times less funding has been invested in female-led start-ups in 2022, compared to their male-led counterparts.
“Year-on-year, the amount of funding raised by female CEOs has decreased between 2021 and 2022, both in absolute ($188m in 2022 vs. $290m in 2021) and relative numbers (3.9 …
The recent leaked Pandora papers have shown how African leaders have directed their investments towards other countries and kept the investments a secret to avoid taxation and hide their wealth.
Leaders exposed by the papers include Presidents Denis Sassou-Nguesso of DRC, Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya, and Patrick Achi of Cote d’Ivoire, among 46 other politicians.
The papers showed that Sassou owned a company that controlled diamond mines. Seven members of the Kenyatta family were linked to at least seven offshore companies and foundations. Through Union Banque Privée (UBP), the Kenyatta’s set up three foundations to avoid inheritance tax and hide their extensive wealth.
The foundations were suspended after failing to pay annual taxes, law firm Algocal says.…
African Development Bank Group has approved two grants worth $83.6 million to boost cross-border trade in electricity between Ethiopia and Djibouti and to deepen integration in the Horn of Africa sub-region.
In a statement, the bank’s board said the funds comprise a $69.65 million grant to Ethiopia and a second grant of $13.93 million to Djibouti.
Both have been sourced from the African Development Fund, which is the African Development Bank’s concessional financing window.
The Ethiopia–Djibouti Second Power Interconnection project will entail the construction of nearly 300 km of interconnector line, 170 km of transmission lines, and new construction or renovation of substations in the two countries.
Commenting on the approval, Bank’s Director of Power Systems Development Batchi Baldeh said the first interconnection line is reaching its power transfer capacity limit due to several developments in both countries, such as the industrial development in the eastern part of Ethiopia, the …
The African fashion industry is hanging on by a thread and stitch, as it continues to suffer plummeting revenues in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, swiftly thrusting it into economic distress. According to the research group Euromonitor, the apparel and footwear industry is cumulatively estimated to be worth $31 billion. However, the vibrant industry is teetering on the edge of a precipice, with a plethora of challenges that have brewed up a storm, with rippling effects across the supply chain due to its interconnected nature. Covid-19 has just stirred up a hornets’ nest in the industry that was already on high alert.
Prior to the pandemic, the fashion industry was generating $2.5 trillion in global annual revenues, but is set to contract by 27 to 30% in 2020, based on a joint report dubbed ‘The State of Fashion 2020, Coronavirus update’ …
Pan African private equity company Convergence Partners has announced that it has acquired all the operations of telecommunication giant Vodacom Business Africa through its digital service provider platform, inq. Holdings Limited (formerly Synergy Communications) based in Mauritius.
Vodacom Business Africa is an enterprise-focused ICT subsidiary of the Vodacom Group. With over US$300mn of capital under management, Convergence Partners brings its skills, experience and capital to develop new investment opportunities as well as actively adding value to investments across the lifecycle of ICT assets.
The 100% acquisition of Vodacom Business Africa’s operations will be effected in Nigeria, Zambia and Cote d’Ivoire with a further planned acquisition in Cameroon pending regulatory approvals.
This transaction grows inq.’s regional footprint as a leading enterprise solutions provider to 13 cities in 7 countries across Africa including its existing operations in Botswana, Malawi and Mozambique.
Under the inq. banner the company will embark on the next …
Chubb, the world’s largest publicly traded property and casualty insurance company has made a $10 million equity investment in the Kenyan based African Trade Insurance Agency (ATI). Chubb is the first global property and casualty insurance company to become a shareholder in Africa’s leading multilateral political risk and credit insurer.
Chubb has operations in 54 countries and territories. The company, which is AA rated by Standard & Poor’s, is a leading underwriter of political risk insurance and reinsurance through two of its businesses, Sovereign Risk, a specialty underwriter based in Bermuda, and Chubb Global Markets, its London market division.
ATI supports trade and investment in African member states by providing comprehensive risk solutions, such as political risk and credit insurance products. Headquartered in Nairobi, ATI is Africa’s leading multilateral political risk and credit insurer (rated A/Stable S&P and A3/Stable Moody’s).
ATI currently counts 16 African nations and 10 …
Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH is supporting African small and medium-sized enterprises and start-ups to gain access to long-term financing more easily. It has committed EUR30mn to the AfricaGrow fund of funds, managed by Allianz Global Investors. KfW Development Bank, on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), together with Allianz Global Investors, has set up this fund of funds that will invest into African private equity and venture capital funds.
The AfricaGrow Fund is designed as a fund of funds for promoting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and start-ups primarily in countries associated with the G20 Compact with Africa (CwA). The AfricaGrow Fund aims to have a catalytic effect on the emerging and dynamic SME and start-up ecosystem and thus promote jobs and income across the CwA countries.
David Weiss, lead investment manager for DEG’s investment in the fund, explains: “DEG specializes in mobilizing …
A group of South African business people representing 35 companies is expected to travel to Mozambique in search of investment and trade opportunities, the trade and industry department said.
The group will be participating in an Outward Trade and Investment Mission to Pemba and Maputo organised by the trade and industry department from 24 – 29 November
The trip’s objective is to increase bilateral trade and investment between South Africa and Mozambique by exposing South African companies to available opportunities in Mozambique. Nomalungelo Gina Trade and Industry Deputy Minister will lead the mission.
According to the department, the specific focus of the mission will be on designated industrial and infrastructure projects as stated in the memorandum of understanding (MoU) on economic cooperation between the two countries.
Keitumetse Moumakoe, the executive director of the Steel Tube Export Association of South Africa, said his main objective for travelling to Mozambique is to …
FinDev Canada has announced an investment of USD 7.5 million in the Africa Forestry Fund II (AFF II), a growth equity fund focused on acquiring and developing environmentally-friendly forestry value chain assets across Sub-Saharan Africa.
Africa Forestry Fund aims to build upon the success of the previous AFF I fund and to improve the reinvigoration of Africa’s forestry sector. The fund could create as many as 3500 jobs in local areas, with up to 30% of them being exclusively for women.
The Fund Manager, Criterion Africa Partners (CAP), concentrates on three key areas of the forestry value chain; the acquisition, improvement and rehabilitation of plantations, downstream manufacturing, and biomass energy. They invest in target companies in each of these processes exclusively in Sub-Saharan Africa. All forestry areas are managed to the stringent requirements of the Forest Stewardship Council.
AFF II aims to combat the impending shortage of wood and wood …
