Original Story Published by: Anna Patton, www.pioneerspost.com
Photo Source: Pioneer Post
(Above) Kamala Ibrahim Ishag
NAIROBI - The African Development Bank is setting up a new US$270m social impact fund to support small and medium-sized enterprises.
Sydney Tetteh Hushie, a coordinator of the African Development Bank’s $300m African Education Fund and part of the team that set up the new impact fund, shared the news at today’s Impact!Africa Social Entrepreneurship Summit in Nairobi, Kenya – saying it was “big news for impact investors on the continent” and “a unique opportunity for Africa”.
The Social Investment and Impact Fund for Africa, raised from the European Union and from other development finance institutions, was agreed just last week. It will provide guarantees and equity investments of between $2.3 and $5m to intermediaries that finance social businesses, as well as grants for technical assistance. It will not invest directly into social enterprises.
A big pipeline of potential investees
Investees are likely to include established funds operating in Africa. The African Development Bank, whose mission is to spur economic development and social progress, had “quite a big pipeline already” of potential investees, said Hushie, but planned to grow that further.
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