Africa Resilience Investment Accelerator (ARIA)

The Africa Resilience Investment Accelerator (ARIA) recently facilitated an FMO - Dutch entrepreneurial development bank-led visit - which colleagues from Swedfund International joined - to Benin and Liberia, to deepen understanding of the financial services sector in both countries. The delegation engaged with key stakeholders at financial institutions, who provided valuable insights into Benin and Liberia's financial landscape. Here are a few of our highlights: ⭐️ Engaging with leading financial institutions: We had meetings with major financial institutions, who provided a comprehensive understanding of the opportunities and challenges in the sector. ⭐️ Exclusive session with Rizwan Haider: The former CEO of Ecobank Benin and Orabank Benin shared his extensive experience and insights into the evolution of Benin's financial sector over the last three decades. ⭐️ Exploring gender-smart investing: We met with key partners to discuss and promote gender-inclusive finance initiatives, highlighting the potential for expanding women's access to financial services in both countries. ⭐️ Strengthening bilateral relations: There were discussions with the Central Bank of Liberia, aimed at establishing collaborative frameworks to drive sustainable financial growth. Moving forward, ARIA will continue to deepen partnerships with financial institutions and stakeholders to support long-term investment opportunities in Benin and Liberia. A special thanks to Théophile Moulin and our DFI colleagues who contributed to the success of this mission!

We recently organised an ESG-focused visit to Ethiopia for representatives from six development finance institutions 🇪🇹 The delegation met public institutions, regulators, donor-funded programmes, banks and local businesses, who all shared valuable insights into Ethiopia's ESG landscape. Highlights from the visit include: ⭐️ The launch of the Africa Resilience Investment Accelerator's (ARIA) ecosystem initiative: This will help banks in Ethiopia to build their capacity and develop strong ESG standards. ⭐️ Supporting gender-smart investing: We joined partners at Renew Capital and 2X Global for the launch of a community of practice dedicated to building a gender-smart economy in Ethiopia. ⭐️ Building partnerships: Meetings with with Ethiopian Capital Market Authority, FSD Africa Ethiopia, Manufacturing Africa and the Accounting and Auditing Board of Ethiopia highlighted the need for strong partnerships in establishing robust ESG frameworks. Special thanks to our local partners, the Manufacturing Africa team, and Surafel Kelemework for their support and collaboration during the trip, and Renew Capital for hosting the 2X Global Event on gender investing!

During the Donor Committee for Enterprise Development Global Seminar in Nairobi, the Africa Resilience Investment Accelerator (ARIA) founding partners British International Investment and FMO - Dutch entrepreneurial development bank hosted an event on enabling donor and DFI collaboration.   At the event, we shared early findings from the upcoming ARIA publication co-produced with Gatsby Africa. The report explores collaboration in practice. Drawing on lessons learnt from existing programmes, it provides in-depth recommendations on how DFIs and donors can maximise benefits from collaboration. Thank you to all who joined us in Nairobi. We are looking forward to sharing the publication with you later this year!

Invest Salone at AFSIC - Investing in Africa: Yesterday we co-hosted the Sierra Leone Investment Summit together with the Africa Resilience Investment Accelerator (ARIA) and Pangea Global Ventures where we celebrated three milestone transactions to Sierra Leone totalling $46.5m in investment. Congratulations to all parties involved and it is really exciting being involved in such transformational investments which will make a real difference to Sierra Leoneans. Thank you to our panellists, it was great to hear your insights and lessons learned about investing in Sierra Leone and we hope there will be a lot more transactions to follow. Come and visit us at our booth if you want to learn more. Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office The Cadmus Group Valerie N.E. Entsiful, ACCA Alex Kucharski Fola Pedro, FCCA Sebastian Ashong-Katai Siaka Stevens Jack Ovens @cedric martin Victor Bangura John Scicchitano

Since the 2015 Addis Ababa Action Agenda, there has been a greater push to mobilize private capital and move from ‘billions to trillions’ in investment to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals. This requires intense collaboration, both among DFIs like FMO, and between DFIs and donor agencies. This is where market creation, a pivotal aim in our 2030 Strategy, comes in: it aims to generate more investment opportunities for development banks and other large-impact investors seeking to contribute to private sector development in the markets and sectors that it currently cannot reach. To that end, we are excited to announce the launch of a new report by Africa Resilience Investment Accelerator (ARIA), a joint initiative we started with British International Investment, to address systemic barriers in African #frontiermarkets. The report, which is part of the Foundations of Growth series, dives deeper into how collaboration can unlock barriers to investment and create new opportunities, and makes the case for collaboration in frontier markets. The next publication in ARIA's Foundations of Growth series will explore how to make successful collaboration in practice. Read it here, or through the PDF below: https://lnkd.in/e6mKQVt7

We're proud to announce this investment by British International Investment in Ecobank Sierra Leone under the ARIA initiative: https://lnkd.in/eKSeS6fA   BII, which is a co-funder of ARIA alongside FMO - Dutch entrepreneurial development bank, is providing a $25 million risk sharing facility alongside a technical assistance programme. This investment will provide crucial access to growth capital to businesses in Sierra Leone, where access to credit for the private sector is one of the lowest in the world.   Our on-the-ground ARIA team is working closely with the partners to make this investment a success and drive significant impact in the country. This investment shows what is possible in Sierra Leone 🇸🇱

Since the 2015 Addis Ababa Action Agenda, there has been a greater push to mobilise private capital and move from ‘billions to trillions’ in investment to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals.    Achieving this requires aim requires collaboration – both among development finance institutions (DFIs) and between DFIs and donor agencies. Our new report dives deeper into how collaboration can unlock barriers to investment and create new opportunities.  This publication is part of our Foundations of Growth series and follows on from our ‘Bridging the Gap’ report produced by British International Investment and Gatsby Africa with support from Donor Committee for Enterprise Development and FMO - Dutch entrepreneurial development bank. This report makes the case for collaboration in frontier markets. The next in our series will explore successful examples of collaboration in greater depth. Read it here: https://lnkd.in/er3z3v5c

We're looking forward to the AFSIC - Investing in Africa 2024 conference on 7 October! We're hosting a booth with our partners Invest Salone and Pangea Global Ventures and participating in a panel discussion on investment in Sierra Leone 🇸🇱. Scan the QR code on the graphic or click the link below ⬇️ to find out more. https://lnkd.in/etcyN3jK

Last year, ARIA founding partners British International Investment and FMO - Dutch entrepreneurial development bank committed up to $20 million each to Dashen Bank. It was the first long-term foreign commitment to Ethiopia’s financial sector 🇪🇹 The investment is aimed at reaching the country's agricultural sector, a key industry in Ethiopia. It employs 80% of the population and generates 90 per cent of its foreign currency from exports. The partnership underlines the power of collaboration. By working together, the organisations are helping to improve technical capacity, catalyse growth and demonstrate the viability of the sector ⬇️

In case you missed it: the Africa Resilience Investment Accerator (ARIA) has shared two publications in the Foundations of Growth series: ✅ Our first publication covers how development finance institutions (DFIs) are fostering growth in frontier markets across Africa: https://lnkd.in/eTkp7z7e ✅ Our second explores the investment opportunities and needs in the five frontier markets we operate in: Benin, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Liberia and Sierra Leone: https://lnkd.in/etSkwYCA ⏩ Keep an eye out for more publications soon! British International Investment FMO - Dutch entrepreneurial development bank #FrontierMarkets #ImpactInvesting