"Private equity firms play a key role in creating an enabling environment for local business development, and supports their growth objectives by implementing best practice ESG policies in portfolio companies. This survey builds on AVCA's inaugural Sustainability Study, released in 2016. In this edition, we quantify how many jobs have been created from a selection of PE-backed companies in Africa between 2009 to 2016, and evaluate the extent of ESG integration in the private equity investment process."
"The study was commissioned to get a better understanding of the 'missing middle' in francophone West Africa, of which Guinea is one of the focus countries. The report describes the main factors that hamper growth of SMEs in Guinea and limit their access to growth finance, and suggests possible actions to increase their access to funding. The analysis of the ecosystem is based on six domains which are: Culture, Policy, Markets, Finance, Support, and Human Capital."
Value for Women and ANDE, supported by the Walmart Foundation, embark on 7 technical assistance projects in Central America, Mexico, and South Africa.
In 2019, the West African entrepreneurial ecosystem experienced major development, with the rise of tech hubs and impact investing activities. There was particularly an increase in direct and indirect investment funds from Development Finance Institutions (DFIs), as indicated in ANDE’s recent State of the Small and Growing Business Sector report.
In South Africa, the second largest economy in sub-Saharan Africa in 2019, SGBs contribute to the economy by increasing employment and job creation opportunities to many people who would not be generally employed by the larger corporations.