SME.NG, Two Others to Get Visa’s Grant Funding from AWIF

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

Three women fund managers from Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa have been selected to receive Visa’s grant funding from the African Women Impact Fund Initiative (AWIF), a collaboration between Standard Bank and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).

Last year, Visa announced a grant to the AWIF as an extension of the She’s Next program, a global advocacy program for women-owned businesses that have been expanded to Sub-Saharan Africa to further champion and strengthen African women business owners as they build, sustain, and advance their businesses.

The beneficiaries for this year are SME.NG from Nigeria, Altree Capital from Kenya and Maia Capital from South Africa.

They are expected to use the grants for their warehousing capital needs to invest in women-owned entrepreneurs across a range of sectors.

The selection of the grant recipients was through a due diligence process managed by the appointed investment manager of the AWIF Initiative, Riscura.

The rigorous selection criteria were in alignment with the objectives of Visa’s She’s Next programme and AWIF, which are to help women-owned businesses thrive and to support and develop women fund managers, respectively.

The co-founder of SME.NG, Thelma Ekiyor, stated that her investment platform is driven by a gender lens investment philosophy focussing on the bottom of the pyramid.

On her part, the chief executive of Altree Capital Kenya, Jenni Chamberlain, said her firm invests with a gender-lens and climate-smart approach in sub-Saharan Africa, with a strong East African presence.

As for the Managing Partner of Maia Capital, Dinao Lerutla, the organisation is the nexus between private capital and inclusive growth.

“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.

“Their progress continues to be slow due to systematic barriers and investor bias. Our collaboration with AWIF will accelerate the multiplier effect of funding across the entire value chain where women-owned businesses exist,” the Senior Vice President & Head of Sub-Saharan Africa at Visa, Aida Diarra, said.

Women fund managers in Africa continue to face numerous challenges in building sustainable businesses. Research shows slow-moving progress in the visibility and inclusion of women fund managers due to systematic barriers and investor bias.

With African women accounting for just 7.6 per cent of private equity and women-led businesses receiving only 7 per cent of Private Equity (PE) and Venture Capital (VC) in emerging markets, this highlights the opportunities that exist to reduce the current gender gaps.

“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.

“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 Global Markets Head of Strategic Partnership at Standard Bank Group, Lindeka Dzedze, commented.