Intelligence & Analysis

On December 3, 2024, the I&P team hosted a Masterclass during Super Return Africa in Cape Town, to present the early findings of a research report on the African private capital ecosystem, set for publication in January 2025.

I&P is proud to announce the publication of the white paper “Mobilizing the Diaspora through Private Equity,” in collaboration with IFAD and Ciwara Capital. This document highlights the key stages and lessons learned from the creation of an investment company founded by the African diaspora to support SMEs on the continent, leading to the launch of Ciwara Capital.

Through practical recommendations and inspiring perspectives, this white paper offers a valuable roadmap for anyone seeking to leverage resources for African development.

As part of a research project funded by the Catalytic Capital Consortium (C3), I&P is analyzing its investment portfolio of more than 250 African small and medium-sized enterprises to identify how, when, and why to use catalytic capital, and how to evaluate the social and financial outcomes of these investments.

If African countries did not speak out on the current conflict in Ukraine during the UN vote in early March, the continent does not escape the fallout of the war. 

To mark International Climate Day, I&P reviewed the "State of the Climate in Africa" report published by the World Meteorological Organization.

The environmental issue has become increasingly important at I&P, and is now a key pillar of our impact thesis. Climate change has and will have very concrete operational consequences for some small and medium-sized African companies: the issues of resilience and adaptation must be at the heart of the debates.

What are the economic prospects in sub-Saharan Africa? The International Monetary Fund (IMF) answers these questions in its semi-annual report on the Regional Economic Outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa and presents two key themes: competition and competitiveness in product markets and domestic arrears in sub-Saharan Africa.

A summary of the report

A few months after conducting two field studies in Madagascar and Senegal, I&P is publishing a summary report on the challenges and impacts of SME formalization in Sub-Saharan Africa.

This report is primarily a practical document for entrepreneurs who wish to formalize their activities and for African investors and governments who are seeking to promote a formal entrepreneurial sector.

The Global Impact Investor Survey (GIIN) published the annual edition of its "Impact Investor Survey". The report captures data from 266 impact investors collected via a survey distributed during January and February 2019.

Download full report

Dalberg, the Dutch Good Growth Fund, Omidyar Network and the Collaborative for Frontier Finance published late October a report entitled “The Missing Middles: Segmenting Enterprises to Better Understand Their Financial Needs”, to which I&P provided data, expertise and guidance.