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Why Innovative Financing Matters Now More Than Ever

Africa faces a persistent $120 billion-plus trade finance gap that limits its ability to move beyond raw material exports and into value-added production and industrialization. At the recent Africa Business Forum 2025 hosted by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), stakeholders from key industries, including financial institutions, multilateral organizations, and private sector entities, emphasized the urgent need to strengthen regional value chains through a multisectoral approach and the need for African financial institutions to help realize this objective. With increasing global economic pressures – including rising interest rates and de-risking steps by international financial institutions – African businesses are struggling to access the capital needed to scale production, integrate into regional and global value chains, and expand exports. Without sufficient trade finance, Africa risks missing a crucial window to industrialize, create jobs, and build resilient economies that are less dependent on commodity price fluctuations.

Our Associate, Meenakshi Coondiah and Standard Bank Group’s African Women Impact Fund Program Manager, Thobile Zenande Finca, co-authored an article highlighting key insights from the Investing in Africa – The Time is Now webinar series. Read the article below to explore the evolving African investment landscape and the pivotal role of gender diversity in transforming markets and unlocking untapped potential. 🔗 Stay tuned for the 2025 MiDA Advisors-Standard Bank Educational Webinar Series.

WITH $1.2 BILLION IN FINANCING ARRANGED IN THE LAST TWO YEARS, MIDA ADVISORS IS EATING THE ELEPHANT ONE BIG BITE AT A TIME

In Africa, the demand for housing far exceeds supply, and across the continent, only a small fraction of the population can afford the homes that exist-leading to a significant gap between current demand and the existing housing supply, with estimates pointing to a shortage of over 50 million units (CAHF 2023).To close the affordable housing gap and achieve one of the major objectives of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11, which calls for adequate, safe, and affordable housing by 2030, greater investment in these same sorts of housing projects is essential.

Avec 1,2 milliard de dollars de financement mobilisés au cours des deux dernières années, MiDA Advisors avance pas à pas pour relever ce défi de taille.

En Afrique, la demande de logements dépasse largement l’offre et, sur l’ensemble du continent, seule une petite fraction de la population peut s’offrir les logements existants. Cela crée un écart considérable entre la demande actuelle et l’offre de logements, avec des estimations indiquant une pénurie de plus de 50 millions d’unités (CAHF 2023).

Investing in Africa’s energy sector for increased electricity access presents a win-win scenario with significant government commitment for US private sector investors.

Electricity is essential for driving economic opportunities, job creation, education, and healthcare services. 83% of the world’s population without electricity resides in Sub-Saharan Africa. This equates to nearly 600 million people who are currently locked out of economic opportunities due to the lack of access to electricity. Without electricity, achieving a more equitable, prosperous, and competitive future for Africa remains challenging.

In partnership with the U.S. government investment initiatives, MiDA led a high-level U.S. institutional investor delegation to Cairo, Egypt, from May 1 – 5, 2023, to attend the Africa Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (AVCA) Annual Conference and to explore investment opportunities and connect with top private equity and venture capital funds in Africa.

MiDA Advisors joined the U.S. government investment initiatives in announcing the successful raise of USD $274 million by Caisse Régionale de Refinancement Hypothécaire (CRRH) – a West African mortgage refinancing company headquartered in Togo. This innovative transaction marks a significant partnership with major U.S. financial institutions, Bank of America Securities, Inc., Brean Capital, LLC, and The Bank of New York Mellon.

Johannesburg: In partnership with the U.S. government investment initiatives , MiDA Advisors, and the World Bank, the Batseta Council of Retirement Funds for South Africa (Batseta) commemorates the first anniversary of the Asset Owners Forum South Africa (AOFSA) today. Since its launch in November 2021, AOFSA has exceeded its fundraising target by nearly seven times.

MiDA Advisors is pleased to welcome Stéphane Le Bouder as Partner and Chief Operations Officer (COO). In his role as COO, Mr. Le Bouder will support the design, implementation, and execution of business strategies focused on expanding the business across new client relationships, business sectors, and regions.

Johannesburg / New York : The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and Standard Bank Group, with the support of the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA), the Motor Industry Retirement Funds (MIRF) and Copartes Pension Fund and the African Union Commission (AUC), have announced the African Women Impact Fund (AWIF) Initiative’s achievement of its first commitment of USD$60 million. The announcement was made at the inaugural The Global Africa Business Initiative, held from 18 – 19 September during the week of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City.

With a flourishing middle class and its spending power growing at exponential rates, opportunities for investors to impact change in African communities are burgeoning. Impactful investing in Black women-owned businesses is especially important because these businesses, time and time again, invest their earnings back into their families and communities, raising the tide for all. AIH Capital’s managing partners, Jesmane Boggenpoel and Sindi Mabaso-Koyana, are the driving force behind the efforts that secured $25 million USD (R400M) as a 100% Black women owned and managed fund manager.

Kenya Pension Fund Investment Consortium into the Lot 3 Road Project Bonds through the U.S. government investment initiatives the World Bank, and MiDA Advisors Support

MiDA Advisors, with the support of the U.S. government investment initiatives, mobilized U.S and African Institutional Investors to co-invest in an Africa focused fund – ADP III managed by Development Partners International (“DPI”). In 2021, DPI, a premier investment firm focused on Africa with $2.8 billion in assets under management including co-investments of $85 million from the City of Philadelphia Board of Pensions and Retirement, Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund, KenGen Pension Scheme, Banki Kuu Pension Scheme, and Eskom Pension and Provident Fund, into its ADP III Fund.

The fifth U.S. Institutional Investor Delegation trip to Africa took place with a focus on South Africa. These delegations was a part of the U.S. government effort to support relationship building and co-investment among U.S. and African partners. This delegation trip strengthened relationships among Africa-focused fund managers and highlight opportunities for co-investing with the Asset Owners Forum South Africa. The delegation included some of the largest U.S. pension funds and foundations exploring opportunities in Southern Africa, including the Oakland Police and Fire Retirement System, Kansas City Public School Retirement System, and New York City Employees’ Retirement System.

From August 2-8, 2022, the fifth U.S. government Institutional Investor Delegation trip to Africa will take place with a focus on South Africa. These delegations are part of an ongoing U.S. government effort to support relationship building and co-investment among U.S. and African partners. This delegation will strengthen relationships among Africa-focused fund managers and highlight opportunities for co-investing with the Asset Owners Forum South Africa. The delegation will include some of the largest U.S. pension funds and foundations exploring opportunities in Southern Africa, including the Oakland Police and Fire Retirement System, Kansas City Public School Retirement System, and New York City Employees’ Retirement System.

CNBC Africa spoke to Cameron Khosrowshahi, Senior Investment Advisor, Prosper Africa and Daniel Miller, Deputy Executive Director, NYC Board of Education Retirement Systems about enriching cross-continental collaboration between the U.S. and Africa.

As women asset managers in Southern Africa, we see a growing, young, ambitious population that wants to do better for themselves and their countries. We see the person in a shanty town (one of South Africa’s slums) aspiring to live in a formal house and own a car. We see more and more of the black community beginning to lead the emerging middle class. We see that when you invest in women—from street vendors to business executives—they turn around and invest back into their families and communities. And we see how we shoot ourselves in the foot when we ignore large segments of society, allowing that potential to go untapped and ignored. We see these things because we are all too familiar with being overlooked. As owners of two of the too few black women-owned and -led private equity firms in South Africa—and across the globe—we see and experience a lot that others don’t.

The doors to financial empowerment and inclusion are typically shut to women entrepreneurs. Greater access to capital could help us unlock them, yet women comprise a small portion of fund managers in the private equity sector – the people who serve as gatekeepers to capital for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The International Finance Corporation found that only 11% of senior investment professionals in emerging markets are women. And the situation is no better in developed markets, where only 10% of these professionals are women. Unfortunately, the statistics for female representation among fund managers are not improving. But other statistics offer more reason for hope: Female funders are twice as likely to invest in startups with at least one female founder and three times as likely to invest in female CEOs. (Goldman Sachs also found that female-managed funds typically outperform their male-managed counterparts.)

For most West Africans, homeownership is out of reach. Rapid population growth and urbanization have created a housing shortage, exacerbated by the lack of access to affordable mortgage loans to finance purchases. With support from the U.S. government investment initiatives, the Caisse Regionale de Refinancement Hypothecaire (CRRH) is bringing a new investment opportunity to U.S. markets that offers investors attractive financial and social returns — and West Africans the resources to make homeownership a reality.

MiDA Advisors and Standard Bank Group, in collaboration with Mercer, have published the second edition of the report titled “Infrastructure financing in sub-Saharan Africa: Opportunities and impact for institutional investors”, to present the attractive case for investing in Africa. This report builds upon the 2018 groundbreaking publication by MiDA Advisors and Mercer, Investment in African Infrastructure: Challenges and Opportunities, which offered an initial examination of sustainable investment opportunities in sub-Saharan Africa.

Today Dana Banks, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Africa for the White House National Security Council, announced a pioneering investment at the Financial Times Africa Summit. Caisse Régionale de Refinancement Hypothécaire (CRRH) – a West African mortgage refinancing company headquartered in Togo – is using the U.S. government’s support to help raise more than $300 million to expand financing for West Africa’s homeowners. This investment will mobilize private capital into West Africa’s housing sector, significantly increasing access to affordable housing across the region—a critical intervention amidst COVID-19.

MiDA Advisors is pleased to announce new investments by U.S. and African pension funds into two Africa-focused funds; African Development Partners III (ADP III) advised by Development Partners International (DPI), and Everstrong Kenya Infrastructure Fund (EKIF) managed by Everstrong Capital. These allocations were enabled by the U.S. government investment initiatives -supported investor mobilization, education, market research, and direct exposure and access to investment opportunities in Kenya, South Africa and across the African continent.

Pension funds and other institutional investors hold more than $100 trillion in assets, and their stakeholders are increasingly interested in utilizing those funds to make socially responsible investments. At the same time, countries in Africa are growing fast — but risk falling behind if they can’t finance the necessary infrastructure to support their growth. On the surface, it would seem like a perfect union of returns and social responsibility. Yet only a fraction of institutional investors hold assets in developing countries. What is holding them back? And how can donors like U.S. government investment initiatives help?

CEO of Development Partners International (DPI) Runa Alam talks about the history of Pan-African private equity, the potential for institutional capital to drive the continent’s development, and the role of the U.S. government investment initiatives in catalyzing two-way trade and investment between the United States and African nations.

Institutional asset owners are increasingly interested in incorporating social and environmental factors into their portfolios and investments strategies. The pandemic, the climate crisis, and other social and environmental challenges have all signaled a fundamental need for change – to allocate more capital into investment products that incorporate some consideration for the real-world outcomes that the investments generate.

With a little more than $2 million in grant funding, the MiDA Program under the U.S. government investment initiatives mobilized $1 billion in two-way investment commitments between the U.S. and Africa

Africa was home to half of the world’s 10 fastest growing economies last year. Institutional investors must begin to seriously consider Africa as an investment destination.

AGF’s Anna Lyudvig speaks with Angela Miller-May about investments opportunities in Africa and private equity.

WASHINGTON – The G7 DFIs, the IFC, the private sector arm of the African Development Bank, EBRD, and the EIB today announced that they were committed to investing $80 billion in the private sector over the next five years to support sustainable economic recovery and growth in Africa.

To increase the number of investable women fund managers in Southern Africa, MiDA Advisors, a global transaction and financial advisory firm, and SAVCA are launching the Women Empowerment Mentoring and Incubation Fund Manager Programme (WE>MI) supported by the U.S. government investment initiatives

Ahead of the onset of the COVID-19 crisis, local pension sectors had been growing rapidly across the African region since the late 2000s. Further development and appropriate regulation of local pension funds and other institutional investors with longer-term investment horizons could enable these financial institutions to become important sources of local finance for infrastructure and other longer-term socioeconomic development needs.

MiDA Advisors, a U.S.-based investment advisory firm, works with the U.S. government investment initiatives to increase U.S. institutional investments in African infrastructure and markets. MiDA Advisors CEO Aymeric Saha discusses the firm’s mission, explains why private sector engagement matters for development outcomes, and offers advice for other firms seeking to work with the U.S. government investment initiatives.

It’s a pervasive narrative, upheld through modern media and internalized by Western audiences. It’s also an incomplete story—a one-dimensional frame that’s had an extraordinary influence on how much of the world views Africa. This worldview permeates even the financial sector, causing investors to overemphasize risks—both real and imagined—across the continent. As a result, they overlook investment opportunities that could benefit their shareholders and retirees, as well as enhance America’s contribution to the prosperity, stability and self-reliance of African nations.

Johannesburg-headquartered MTN Group is the most valuable and strongest telecom brand in Africa, a report released this week by Brand Finance shows, while ranking Etisalat top in the Middle East and Africa region as a whole.

The European Commission and the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy today proposed the basis for a new strategy with Africa. The communication sets out proposals to intensify cooperation through partnerships in five key areas: green transition; digital transformation; sustainable growth and jobs; peace and governance; and migration and mobility.