Their Core Philosophy
rivate equity investment in the “missing middle” is still relatively new in East Africa, and the Fund is expanding the spectrum of capital in the region by focusing on and specialising in financing businesses in this niche.

The following points outline their approach

The Fund will look to exit from its investments within 3-5 years. For the duration of its investment, the Fund will actively engage with portfolio companies by:
Taking equity stakes and thereby making a commitment to shareholders to share the same risks in executing their business plans
Offering support at all levels (shareholder, board and management) and providing crucial and strategic information, knowledge and strategy
Providing the resources needed for critical pre- and post- investment support, over and above the standard portfolio management via the Business Advisory Support Facility.

Their fund:

Fanisi makes equity investments of between US$0.5 million to US$3 million, per transaction, in:
Growth capital for businesses
Buyouts from going concerns
Start ups and early stage businesses
Established businesses with high growth potential.

Official Website

Image via Wikipedia

The Rwanda Stock Exchange ( No website available), a memer of the African Stock Exchange Association, was founded on January 31st 2011.The RSE is operated under the jurisdiction of Rwanda’s Capital Markets Advisory Council, (CMAC), which in turn reports to National Bank of Rwanda, the country’s Central Bank.Having successfully launched Bralirwa, as its pioneer Initial Public Offering (IPO), the RSE is in preparation for its next IPO which is expected to be Bank of Kigali, coming in Q4:2011.

The RSE operates closely with the three other stock exchanges of the region, the Nairobi Stock Exchange in Kenya, the Dar-es-Salaam Stock Exchange in Tanzania and the Uganda Securities Exchange in Uganda. There are plans are to integrate the four (04) stock exchanges to form a single East African bourse

The Bank proclaims to have  a global outlook and  focuseson  corporate banking with strong support for commercial banking, retail banking and high networth individuals. Access Bank Plc has over 120 branches and business offices located in all major commercial centres and cities across Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, The Gambia, Zambia, Cote d’Ivoire and the United Kingdom.

The board of directors consists of :Mr. Amematepko,Amadou Ly,Benjamin Oviosu,Mr. Kouao,and Mrs. Ojini Olaghere.

The management team is made of:Amadou LY ,Benjamin OVIOSU,Alain KETE ,Ben AKPALOO,Franck IMBOUA,Atinuke ETUNDAYO,Ismael TOURE,and Nome Karine LOHOUES.

With operations and exploration activities in Zimbabwe, and a broad range of exploration and development projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Ghana, the asset base of Mwana Plc is diverse and well spread [gold, nickel, copper, zinc, cobalt,diamonds and oil and gas].

“Recommandations and comments made by Dr. Mark Mobius, the executive Chairman of Franklin Templeton “

They are bargain hunters, they love cheap stocks and thus love bear markets
- Emerging markets look good for long term investors for several reasons: they are growing faster than developed countries, they have less debt, they have more reserves, inflation is coming down, they are taking up a lager share of world trade and also trading more with each other
- Bull markets are followed by bear markets which are followed by bull markets then bear……
- Bull markets last longer than bear markets, and values appreciate more during bear markets than they depreciate during bear markets. he said by their measures over the last 20 years bull markets last on average 22 months and values appreciate by 113% while bear markets on average last 6 months and values depreciate 32%
- Various FT funds are concentrated in mainly energy stocks, then banks, raw materials, communications etc.

All these economic entities share the same situation, their assets net worth has historically been undervalued or has recently decreased due to poor leadership,bad ratings,poor branding,pure ignorance,and war episodes. The fact is these nations while being considered unattractive by many present the following advantages:

large population/consumer base;15 million and up

Large pool of skilled workers

Industrial Tissue

Stable-strong Financial industry

Growing[rapidly] middle-Class

Vast land area [except for Sierra-leone and Rwanda]

Natural resources rich

Large and resourceful diaspora

To get you started on purchasing intangibles,check these sites below:

BRVM

Ghana Stock Exchange

Ethiopia Commodity Market

Zimbabwe Stock Exchange

Nairobi Stock Exchange

West African banks include big players like,United Bank for Africa[6 million customers],Ecobank[500 branches], Access Bank, and Bank of Africa [Monitor]