ONE is embarking on a listening and learning trip to Senegal, Ghana, Mozambique and Kenya with members of our board and other supporters. Check out this guest post from Papa Madiaw Ndiaye, CEO and founding partner of Advanced Finance & Investment Group (AFIG). In 2004, he was selected as a “Young Global Leader” by the World Economic Forum of Davos and then as one of the ‘’Frontier 100 CEOs’’ of the Initiative for Global Development in 2009. Be sure to scroll to the bottom for a short video of Papa discussing foreign investment in Africa:
There are great companies across Africa with huge potential for growth and expansion. With the right capital investment and strategic support they will prosper not only in their national and regional markets, but globally. It is not unreasonable for people who invest their money in Africa today to aspire to substantial returns of as much as 30% per annum over a few years.
This was the message my partners and I shared with a delegation of ONE board members who yesterday visited the Dakar offices of the private equity firm I founded in 2005 – AFIG which stands for Advanced Finance & Investment Group. Our maiden fund – the Atlantic Coast Regional Fund – focuses primarily on West and Central Africa and has a target capitalization of $100M, of which three-quarters has already been raised. Our aim is simple – to pick winning companies and help them grow. To execute our plan, I brought together a team of African professionals with broad financial and operational experience as well as deep knowledge of the markets we cover.
So why should an advocacy organization like ONE be interested in a private equity firm like ourselves? I think there are two main reasons. The first is that the most tried and tested route out of poverty is employment. The successful home-grown African companies we invest in provide good jobs and contribute to wealth creation in the economy more generally. If these companies are helped to grow further, then the developmental benefits are clear.
The second reason is that the sectors we focus on are strategically critical for any country to cut poverty and promote economic development. Agribusiness, the energy sector, infrastructure, light manufacturing, and financial services are all areas where Africa lags behind much of the world and where the upside is huge. Investment in those sectors not only has the promise of good returns for our investors but also for the local economy.
There are of course challenges to running a company like AFIG. I spent many years working on Wall Street and I know the perception of many institutional investors has been that Africa is too risky, too dangerous and too alien a business environment for them to put their money in. This is a misconception that needs to be challenged, not simply for the sake of our business, but for the success of the African private sector as a whole. Good investment and development go hand in hand. We hope ONE can play its role in spreading the word.
ONE is campaigning to ensure that the Congressional budget does not cut foreign assistance programs like Feed the Future that help people break the cycle of poverty and hunger.
The Horn of Africa is experiencing its worst drought in 60 years. More than 11 million people, mostly nomadic pastoralists and farmers in south-central Somalia, north-eastern Kenya, and south-eastern Ethiopia, are severely lacking access to food.
2011 marks 30 years since the first cases of AIDS were documented. Take a closer look at the specific, achievable goals we must hit by 2015 to make this year the beginning of the end of AIDS.
As aid agencies warn more than 9 million people could be affected by a food crisis in East Africa, world leaders are failing to keep their 2009 promises to tackle the causes of chronic hunger and support farmers in the world's poorest countries.
