The African Private Equity and Venture Capital Association’s (AVCA), has canvassed for increased investment in Africa’s new green economies.
The association championed this through its inaugural Sustainable Investing in Africa Summit in London.
The summit convened over 150 key private equity and venture capital stakeholders from around the globe.
The event championed the industry’s growth and evolution, key players, and collective action required to increase investment in equality, diversity, and Africa’s new green economies.
The chief executive officer, AVCA, Abi Mustapha-Maduakor opened the summit by setting out the imperative to pair private capital with purpose.
He described it as an area where African investors have been paving the way on sustainable investing for decades.
She added that AVCA will be partnering with the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change to produce a comprehensive report that maps Africa’s climate policy landscape and the level of green investment from the private capital industry being channeled to the continent’s 54 economies.
Despite suggesting that gender and diversity finance should not be limited to women-led businesses, chief executive officer, Renew Strategies, Matthew Davies said, “It is important that our industry is intentional about ensuring that female-led businesses are provided the capital they need to succeed. We need to achieve at least 50 per cent parity before 2030.”
Co-founder and managing director, Alitheia IDF, Tokunboh Ishmael, and senior vice-president, Strategy & Impact, Mennonite Economic Development Associates, Lindsey Wallace, pledged to leverage their convening power to ramp up investment for gender and diversity finance across the continent.
Speaking on the evolution of gender-lens investing, Ishmael said, “We need to move from billions to trillions, and integrate net-zero commitments with this mission.”
Also, founder & chief executive officer at Kuramo Capital, Wale Adeosun, advocated for GP-LP strategies to back the creation of novel technologies and industries for the next generation.
Partner, LeapFrog Investments, Karima Ola, described how the popularisation and evolution of impact investing has been characterised by developing the DFI toolkit towards intentionality to solve local priorities, generating sustainable returns and opportunities with businesses.
The chief executive officer, African Venture Philanthropy Alliance, Frank Aswani raised the importance of mobilising local pools of capital through innovation with financial instruments to support high-potential markets in Africa at a time of global uncertainty and instability.
AVCA is a pan-African industry body that promotes private investment in Africa.
