Nick O’Donohoe - Afrikan Heroes

British International Investment Launches in South Africa to Accelerate Clean Energy Investments

October 20, 2022

The British International Investment (BII), the UK’s development finance institution (DFI) and impact investor, launched its new name at a business reception in Johannesburg and reaffirmed its commitment to invest to accelerate South Africa’s economic dynamism. BII will deploy its patient long-term capital toward scaling climate finance and expanding the country’s clean energy capacity, increasing investments into economic transforming sectors, and backing productive and inclusive opportunities across the country.

Nick O’Donohoe, Chief Executive of BII, co-hosted the event on Tuesday alongside Adam Bye, Deputy High Commissioner to South Africa. Addressing the business leaders, key local stakeholders, ministers and BII partners in attendance, Mr O’Donohoe highlighted the DFI’s special relationship with South Africa and reiterated BII’s ambition to align its investment strategy to help solve pressing challenges in South Africa including urgently delivering reliable clean energy.

In 2021, BII’s portfolio in South Africa was valued at over $142 million. Having significantly scaled its investments into clean energy infrastructure in 2022, the DFI’s commitment today now stands at over $520 million.

These latest investments include BII’s partnership alongside Standard Bank and H1 Holdings in three Kenhardt projects under South Africa’s Risk Mitigation Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (RMIPPPP). The projects represent Africa’s largest and South Africa’s first baseload renewable energy project, powered entirely by renewable sources. BII also invested in H1 Holding, a South African black-owned and managed renewables investment and development company –supporting the development of additional c. 2.4 GW of gross renewable capacity in the country.

British High Commissioner to South Africa, Antony Phillipson, said: “I am delighted that BII are making such a strong commitment to enhancing their presence and impact in South Africa. I particularly welcome BII’s focus on investments that will help to build South African businesses, and create more economic opportunities for people and communities that urgently need them. This is a vital part of the partnership between South Africa and the UK in key sectors like renewable energy, healthcare and infrastructure. These are critical to helping South Africa achieve its ambitions to create inclusive economic growth, and to deliver a Just Energy Transition through investment in a green, sustainable and job creating economy.”

O’Donohoe also highlighted BII’s investment focus on helping to reduce inequality in South Africa. The DFI’s recent investment in Lona Foods is increasing productive and inclusive economic opportunities for low-income workers – particularly women. BII backed Summit Fund, a black-owned and managed private equity fund that is investing in underserved areas, and the DFI’s commitment to H1 Capital marked its first direct investment in a Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment (BBEE) company in South Africa.

Commenting on BII’s future ambitions in the country, Chief Executive Officer Nick O’Donohoe said: “BII will continue to partner with key players whose work help to promote inclusive opportunities and stimulate productive and sustainable growth.”

“We are committed to championing the expansion of South African firms into other African markets, to facilitate knowledge sharing and deliver best-in-class technical and operational expertise that will accelerate national and continental prosperity. As we advance through our new strategy period, BII remains determined to leverage our expertise as Africa’s largest climate finance investor to invest in nascent renewable technology, and water supply projects and help mobilise more commercial capital to grow South Africa’s economy.”

BII first invested in South Africa in 1995 when it backed a 440 km motorway between Witbank and Maputo – the N4 road and toll plazas. Today, its investments in South Africa supports over 49,000 jobs in over 42 businesses and 26 investment funds.

BII’s additional investment activities in South Africa include:

Delivering clean power to South Africa’s grid through:

Globeleq, a BII majority-owned company and one of South Africa’s leading independent renewable energy providers.

Gridworks, a BII-owned electricity transmission and distribution platform.

ACWA Power’s Redstone Concentrated Solar Power Project – a project using pioneering energy storage technology to help increase South Africa’s renewable energy supply.

Investing $18.5 million in TymeBank – a digital banking group, to support the creation and launch of a new partnership channel and credit products that will increase services to under-served populations.

Backing Liquid Telecom with a $220 million investment in 2019 to improve access to affordable and high-quality internet and accelerate the company’s Cape-to-Cairo fibre network connection.

Partnering with South Africa’s Vodacom Group in the Global Partnership for Ethiopia consortium to improve access to affordable and high-quality internet in Ethiopia, and expand productivity and social inclusion across the country.

The DFI has an office in Johannesburg, which is led by Thithi-Kuhlase-Maseko, Head of Office and Coverage Director for South Africa.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry

January 24, 2021

CDC to Invest Over $1 billion in Africa in 2021

The CDC Group, the UK’s impact investor and development finance institution (DFI), today announced a commitment to invest over US$1 billion again in African businesses in 2021. The commitment will enable CDC to invest in many more promising African entrepreneurs and SMEs, and continue to drive inclusive growth and job creation across the continent, where over half of the institution’s portfolio is now invested. The funds will be invested in financial institutions, infrastructure and climate, services, manufacturing, agriculture, real estate and technology.

Nick O’Donohoe, Chief Executive Officer of CDC, — Nick O’Donohoe, Chief Executive Officer of CDC group

In 2020, CDC committed over $1 billion into Africa with a focus was the economic recovery from COVID-19. CDC injected systemic liquidity into financial markets, provided capital for companies that deliver critical goods and services, made new commitments to African funds and protected existing investees to help them sustain employment. Foreign direct investment into Africa is predicted to have declined by 30%* over the year. CDC’s maintained investment pace provides counter-cyclical funding at a critical time for the continent. The fund’s investment activity is equivalent to an ever-greater proportion of foreign direct investment into Africa.

Today, CDC unveiled plans at the UK-Africa Investment Conference to expand its Africa portfolio with new investments in key markets including Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria and the continent’s harder-to-reach frontier markets where significant development gains can be made. As the world’s largest bilateral development investor in Africa, CDC has invested more than £2.7 billion in African businesses over the past three years. In 2019, CDC’s investments supported over 320,000 direct jobs in Africa, contributing close to US$1.5 billion in taxes to local economies.

Key deals announced in 2020 include: A US$100 million investment in Helios Investors IV to scale market-leading companies across the continent. The creation of a US$750 million biopharmaceutical platform to broaden access to speciality generic pharmaceuticals in Africa. The launch of the BlueOrchard Covid-19 Emerging and Frontier Markets MSME Support Fund, which is anchored by CDC and aims to support more than 200 million jobs in frontier and emerging markets. A US$40 million additional investment in Liquid Telecom to boost the growth of digital ecosystems and a US$50 million guarantee by MedAccess – a CDC subsidiary – to UNICEF to improve the access and affordability of COVID-19 medical supplies for low and middle-income countries.

Nick O’Donohoe, Chief Executive Officer of CDC, said: “2020 was a challenging year for African economies and businesses, which have been heavily affected by COVID-19. As an impact investor and DFI, CDC is committed to providing long-term investment particularly in challenging times. As FDI continues to drop, we maintain our steadfast commitment to African businesses as they play a leading role in accelerating Africa’s economic and human development.

Alongside our partners at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and Department for International Trade we’ve focused our efforts on preserving the development gains that have been hard won over the last twenty years and ensuring Africa’s recovery from COVID-19 is inclusive and sustainable