Development finance

The International Finance Corporation together with other development finance institutions and impact investors are providing a $165m credit facility to Nairobi-based Equity Group to support lending to MSMEs

The African Development Bank has launched a multi-donor trust fund seeking to stimulate the growth of the continent’s circular economy, with support from the Finnish government and the Nordic Development Fund

New capital commitments by donors, including governments and multilateral development banks, will help lower-income countries boost short-term COVID vaccinations under the COVAX programme, and procure their own vaccines in the future

CDC Group has been formally renamed as British International Investment (BII), a name which the organisation says better reflects the scope of its work. BII will play a key role in the government’s plans to mobilise up to £8 billion a year in investments in international projects

The Beyond the Grid Fund for Africa is expanding its geographical reach in its aim to bring clean, affordable, off-grid energy access to millions of households and support the growth of commercially sustainable businesses across the continent

Launched in 2017, the Village Enterprise Development Impact Bond has helped 95,000 East Africans out of poverty during the pandemic, supporting more than 14,000 first-time entrepreneurs in Kenya and Uganda

SECO’s Liliana de Sá Kirchknopf explains how Switzerland is mobilising more private capital for developing countries aligned with the SDGs, and announces the first call for proposals under a new impact finance initiative

Armelle Renaudin, co-founder of French NGO Entrepreneurs du Monde, explains how their unique approach to social microfinance is helping society’s poorest create successful businesses that last

Manfred Schepers, founder and CEO of ILX Management, is on a mission to bridge the gap between institutional investors’ desire to raise their sustainability profile in emerging markets, and the need for a greater mobilisation of private capital towards SDG-focused projects

Verdant Capital’s Edmund Higenbottam has helped raise more than a quarter of a billion dollars for inclusive financial institutions and fintech companies in Africa since 2017. Impact Investor talks to him about about fintech, impact investing and their latest fund