Private Equity in Africa: The Challenges and the Promise

Developing Market: These countries may have less developed legal, political, economic and/or other systems. Investments in these markets carry a higher risk of financial loss than those in countries generally regarded as being more developed.
The views expressed are as at the date of publication and may no longer be current.

Capital shortage, underdeveloped and under representative capital markets, and ongoing generational changes in consumer and resource demand – together these can create a perfect storm for the private equity opportunity in frontier markets.

Africa epitomises this paradigm and today’s capital deployed by private equity players is only just beginning to tap the continent’s opportunity set. The implications of increased private market activity for Africa’s capital markets and the quality of the continent’s continued growth are potentially very significant. In this section, Nick Tims, Managing Director of Investec Asset Management’s UK Institutional Client Group, highlights the challenges and promise of private equity investing in Africa.

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