BlueOrchard announces $350mln fund for African micro-enterprises

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BlueOrchard announces $350mln fund for African micro-enterprises

7:09 CAT | 18 Nov 2020

File photo: Ecofin

Investment fund manager BlueOrchard announced the launch of a $350 million fund called “BlueOrchard Covid-19 Emerging and Frontier Markets MSME fund” to help companies better recover from the pandemic. For this operation, the fund manager partnered with the UK’s development finance institute CDC, the US International Development Finance Corporation and Japan’s International Cooperation Agency.

The fund has an initial capital of about $140 million, divided into tranches of $100 million. Each part will be used to finance, through some twenty financial institutions that are BlueOrchard’s partners, nearly 3 million micro-enterprises in emerging markets.

This new investment vehicle will also be equipped with a technical assistance mechanism that will support companies hard hit by the crisis. The German development finance institution KfW has expressed its willingness to join the group of investors mobilizing financing for the Fund.

Nick O’Donohoe (photo), CEO of CDC Group said: “we are pleased to have played a key role in enabling the Fund to achieve this timely launch. It will deploy capital on a large scale for millions of small entrepreneurs affected by the pandemic. It is essential that financial support is made available to help preserve, strengthen and help rebuild micro, small and medium sized enterprises to contribute to long-term growth and economic stability in emerging markets.”

By Chamberline Moko

Source: Ecofin