As I&P celebrates its 20th year of activity, the team is pleased to present its "Manifesto for the financing and support of entrepreneurship in Africa.
Based on 20 years of learning, entrepreneurial adventures, successes as well as failures and challenges, this manifesto aims to share with you the five best practices or core approaches that we believe are essential if we want to accomplish our mission to serve African entrepreneurs.
Launch of the I&P Digital Energy program, news from the portfolio and local funds, etc. Discover the latest news of I&P in our newsletter n°38!
In summary:
⇒ An editorial signed by Evelyne Dioh SIMPA, Executive Director of WIC Capital;
I&P has specialized for 20 years in financing and supporting SMEs in Sub-Saharan Africa. Although our activities have gradually expanded (seed financing, consulting, training, etc.), private equity remains I&P's core business. The issue of exits is integral to the private equity business model.
For the International Women's Rights Day, I&P evaluated its gender policy on the basis of the annual report of the Deloitte & France Invest "Talents & Diversity" Commission, which aims to promote and encourage the role of women and gender diversity in the Capital Investment business.
Since its creation in 2016, the online platform Afrikrea has been promoting African-inspired fashion and crafts (clothing, accessories, decoration, etc.)
Afrikrea offers customers the chance to buy African creations online under the best conditions. However the originality and added value of its approach lies above all in the support and the provision of sales management tools to designers.
Since 2020, this service offer is accessible on a second platform, ANKA, and works on a subscription basis. ANKA is an all-in-one solution that allows any African seller (and not only fashion designers) to sell and ship their products worldwide and get paid quickly through international and local payment systems.
Currently, Afrikrea federates a community of 7,400 sellers present in 47 African countries and offers a wide range of products with more than 120,000 available references to more than 200,000 users and 60,000 buyers in over 150 countries.
The entrepreneurs
Afrikrea is led by a team of 4 promoters: Moulaye Tabouré (CEO), Kadry Diallo (CMO), Luc Perussault Diallo (CTO) and Guillaume Darnaudet (CFO), all with complementary profiles in auditing, IT, project management and finance.
Having grown up in Bamako (Mali) before moving to France for their studies, co-founders Moulaye Tabouré and Kadry Diallo realized that African handmade products were as rare as highly prized and valuable.
As for Luc Perussault Diallo, the company's CTO, he has over 20 years of experience in marketplaces and e-commerce. Guillaume Darnaudet joined the Afrikrea adventure in 2018 as CFO and shareholder, after a position as financial manager in a construction company in Ivory Coast.
Partnership with I&P
I&P is committed to working with Afrikrea to support the company in:
• Strengthening its technological and marketing team in order to ensure a better offer of tools and services and to offer the best possible support to sellers
• Expanding its geographical scope
Expected Impacts
• Creation of economic opportunities for African creators by reducing barriers to accessing large markets
• Job creation: over 50% job growth during the investment period
• Strong impact on gender equality: 80% of the marketplace's sellers are women
Investisseurs & Partenaires publishes the second edition of its annual impact report, a summary of our impact mission and the most significant achievements and progress made in 2021.
In a time period strongly marked by the Covid-19 crisis, I&P's teams have grown stronger, new projects have been launched and support for African entrepreneurs is more necessary and useful than ever.
On July 21st, Investisseurs & Partenaires (I&P), in partnership with the Cameroon Chamber of Commerce and the European Union, organized a masterclass dedicated to funding solutions for SMEs in Cameroon ( from microfinance to equity investment). During this event, several financial and legal institutions as well as entrepreneurs shared their experience in order to draw up a complete panorama of traditional and alternative funding solutions available to companies according to their size and maturity.
Ed Partners Africa is a non-banking financial institution that aims to provide adapted financial solutions to the education sector and especially to affordable schools in East Africa.
Context
In Kenya, the rapid urbanization combined with the rising income levels have increased the demand for private schools as the quality of public schools is wanting. In 2018, there were 52,000 registered and unregistered private schools in the country that focused on primary and secondary enrolments. Ed Partners currently lends to both affordable and middle-income schools, affordable schools being those with annual school fees below USD 300. By mid-2021, the company had disbursed a total of USD 1.5 mililon to over 140 schools.
The government has until now turned a blind eye to the existence of these schools, but has recently mandated that all schools with non-compliant infrastructure will be shut down. This is therefore incentivizing already registered schools to upgrade their infrastructure and for unregistered schools to start the registration process and to begin investing in compliant infrastructures. Therefore, most schools will require additional investment in equipment and basic infrastructure.
In this context, Ed Partners aims to fill the gap in the current market by providing customized products, understanding schools’ special needs and proposing tailored complimentary services to affordable schools in Kenya and in the long term in the region.
The model was conceived by replicating the proven business model of Varthana, a school financing company in India, with 7 years of experience and a current portfolio size of USD 157 million provided to over 3,500 schools.
Ed Partners was founded by a team of 4 microfinance experts with on average 15+ years of experience in impact investing and in microfinance in East Africa and in India. Together, these founding members bring their expertise and network to support the roll-out of the project in the region.
Ed Partners is currently managed by Amos Mwangi who is the CEO. Amos has 17 years of experience in business development, sales, credit management and leadership. He previously worked 6 years as a Business Development Manager at Faulu Microfinance Bank in Kenya where he oversaw 44 branches in 38 locations. Before Faulu Microfinance, he worked at Equity Bank and Family Bank in various roles at both branch and head office level. Amos holds a Masters in Banking and Finance from Moi University and achieved complementary business and finance studies at Kenyatta University.
The partnership between Ed Partners and I&P (through its fund I&P Afrique Entrepreneurs 2) aims to:
⇒ Ensuring a wider geographical coverage with the opening of 6 additional hubs in 6 counties in Kenya
⇒ Funding EdPartners’ loan book. The company anticipates a rapid growth of the loan book to reach 6,000 loans disbursed to about 3,000 schools in the next 5 years
⇒ Supporting further expansion into the rest of East Africa within the next few years, where there is significant demand for the products offered by Ed Partners
Ed Partners has the potential to have an important impact on the education sector in Kenya and in the long term in East Africa.
The company enables improvement in the quality of education offered by middle-income and affordable schools by providing access to adapted financial solutions and coaching.
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