Investment bankers in East Africa are yet to fully utilize the potential of the region. Currently the major reason that will deter any enterprising African is capital to start off their business. This is one area that has not received much growth.
First of all, when we talk about Investment bankers we mean an individual or a financial institution that assist individuals, corporations and governments in raising capital for their businesses.
Start-ups and SME’s are looking into making an impact in the economy but the main hindrance in all this is the availability of capital; which according to Ventures Capital For Africa (VC4A) is the most unexplored area, making it a potentially lucrative business opportunity, as well as jump starting the Start-ups and SME’s which in turn will improve the economic situation in Africa.
Some of the Investment bankers include:
Ventures Capital for Africa (VC4A) which has more than one hundred investors on board, it provides funding to promising start-ups in Africa.
Kenya’s telco company Safaricom recently launched called the ‘Safaricom Spark Venture Fund‘ which is aimed at accelerating the development of innovative mobile applications and solutions by availing much needed capital to ICT start-ups.
Novastar Ventures, who is looking to assist entrepreneurs designing and executing innovative business models to improves the raw and growing East African market.
Savannah Fund, puts their money in early stage high growth technology Start-ups in sub-Saharan Africa. It Started its base in East Africa then later expanded to fill the gap o that currently exists in Africa.
Success Stories
Out of this Investment bankers/ventures there are many success stories out of this, some of this include Sanergy, M-Farm, solar now all funded by Novastar Ventures; we have Babygroup, eneza education, Bigx all funded by Savannah among other Start-ups in Africa.
This Start-up have created employment and have elevated the GDP in the continent, but this is just a drop in the ocean because there are many ventures/SME’s/Start-up looking for someone to hear them out but they have not managed to get a financial helping hand and not only financila helping but even worthy advice on how to go abotu thier projects.
With the right capital injection, the potential businesses/ventures will have more options to explore thier potential which will become a big businesses in the continent, which will create employments hence increase the GDP.
