Rockefeller, Elumelu go for impact investment

 

In Summary

• The Impact Economy Innovations Fund (IEIF) has an undisclosed kitty, but will fund up to eight proposals in the next one year with each proposal receiving a maximum of $1 million.
• Organisations willing to submit their proposals have until May 31 to do so.

A new fund to support initiatives aimed at improving Africa’s impact investing has been launched by the Rockefeller Foundation and The Tony Elumelu Foundation.

The Impact Economy Innovations Fund (IEIF) has an undisclosed kitty, but will fund up to eight proposals in the next one year with each proposal receiving a maximum of $1 million. Organisations willing to submit their proposals have until May 31 to do so.

The fund was launched in Cape Town, South Africa during a conference on impact investing in Africa held at the Bertha Centre for Social Innovation & Entrepreneurship at the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business.

The conference was aimed at helping stakeholders gain a regional perspective on the policy barriers and enabling environment for impact investing in Africa.

Impact investments are investments made into companies, organisations, and funds with the intention to generate measurable social and environmental impact alongside a financial return.

Impact investors actively seek to place capital in businesses and funds that can harness the positive power of enterprise and occurs across asset classes, for example private equity/venture capital, debt and fixed income.

Proposals qualifying for funding will be those geared towards projects that seek to enable capital solutions, foster entrepreneurial ecosystems and promote impact investing, industry and infrastructure with the ultimate aim of impacting the lives of poor or vulnerable people throughout Africa.

Other considerations will be on those proposals that develop market ecosystems for specific sectors and form leadership and networking platforms for common actions.

Priority will be given to projects with specific geographic focus. Funding priorities of the Impact Economy Innovations Fund are influenced by the directions set at the Impact Investing Forum (IIF), held in the past week, said the foundations in a statement.

The Impact Economy Innovations Fund will be managed by the Global Impact Investing Network in close collaboration with The Rockefeller Foundation and The Tony Elumelu Foundation.

Judith Rodin, President of the Rockefeller Foundation said: “With investors who are motivated by social and financial outcomes, enterprises able to translate this capital into improvements in people’s lives, and companies engaged in the business of social impact, we can do more than ever to put the poor or vulnerable on a path to greater prosperity.”

The Rockefeller Foundation is one of the organisations that has been financing impact investing in Africa in the past five years.

One of the impact investing projects it has financed is the Mtanga Farms Ltd of Tanzania, an initiative that helps several thousand low-income people in rural Tanzania access inputs, technology and markets.