Private equity in Africa moves beyond development funding

As governments across the continent are engaging in economic reforms and building their country’s infrastructure, new types of investors are starting to see Africa as a safe bet when searching for higher returns.

A good indicator of this new appetite is that the proportion of development funds investing in private equity funds active in Africa is shrinking compared with private sector investors. “Development foreign investment used to be well over 50% until 2004,” says Rod Evison, portfolio director responsible for investment in Africa at CDC, a UK government owned fund of funds that invests in private equity funds in emerging markets.