Three women fund managers from Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa have been picked to receive Visa’s grant financing from the African Women Impact Fund Initiative (AWIF).
The significant grant is the result of a collaboration between Standard Bank and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).
Kenya’s Altree Capital, Nigeria’s SME.NG and South Africa’s Maia Capital will use the grants for their warehousing capital needs to invest in women-owned businesses in varied sectors.
In 2022, Visa declared a grant to AWIF as an extension of the She’s Next program, a global advocacy program for women-owned businesses that was expanded to Sub-Saharan Africa.
“We are proud to extend our efforts to empower women entrepreneurs to the fund management space. Women fund managers in Africa continue to face numerous challenges in building sustainable businesses,” said Visa Senior Vice President & Head of Sub-Saharan Africa, Aida Diarra.
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she added, “Our collaboration with AWIF will accelerate the multiplier effect of funding across the entire value chain where women owned businesses exist.”
Recent research has pointed at a slow progress in the visibility and inclusion of women fund managers in various sectors owing to systematic barriers and investor bias.
African women account for just 7.6 per cent of private equity and women-led businesses receive only 7 per cent of Private Equity (PE) and Venture Capital (VC) in emerging markets.
“When you invest in women, you also invest in their communities. Investments that go into the hands of women fund managers not only go towards the growth and sustainability of the companies they invest in, but the women who are part of the value chain of these companies,” stated Standard Bank Group Global Markets Head of Strategic Partnership Lindeka Dzedze.
Dzedze added, “We are proud to have selected managers who have demonstrated their ability to support the growth and development of their communities, and through the grant these managers will now be in a better position to scale up their efforts and impact the lives of many more women-led businesses.”
The recipients were selected via a rigorous process managed by Riscura, the AWIF Initiative appointed investment manager, to align with the objectives of Visa’s She’s Next programme and AWIF.
Altree Capital Kenya CEO Jenni Chamberlain, one of the selected fund managers, is the Investment Manager of the Altree Kadzi Gender Climate Fund.
The fund has a gender-lens and climate-smart approach to its investments in sub-Saharan Africa and has a strong presence in East Africa.
“We have four investment pillars that we focus on when we look at an investment, namely, women entrepreneurs, women in leadership (the business must have 30 per cent or more of women in management or on the board, employers of more than 30 per cent women and/or products and services that will improve the lives of women,” she said.
Altree Kadzi Gender Climate Fund says it will invest the funds in women-led and women-oriented firms and drive sustainability and climate adaptation and mitigation strategies.
“By intentionally focusing on women and climate, Altree will provide support not only to the investee companies but also to companies in the greater investment value chain, ensuring gender-equity mainstreaming and sustainability, Chamberlain added.
She noted that women-led businesses are an important yet overlooked sector of the African economy and that women faced numerous barriers in accessing finance for their businesses.
“Altree will prove the ability of these companies to produce strong returns for the female entrepreneurs and investors alike. Not only are women most affected by climate change but women are early adopters of climate mitigation and adaptation technologies and solutions, as well as strong benefit multipliers,” she concluded.
