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

Related articles by Zemanta

• East Africa gets High-Speed Internet Access (one.org)

[Click on the post title to read full story]

The phenomenal growth observed in the last eight months since the bank opened operations in Uganda is due to their customer-centric innovations, simple steps in account opening and flexible loan product ranges that grow the customer and a humane management style.

For example ,customers might want to open an account with the little saving they have but some costs associated with doing such can deter them,such as cost of transportation,fee for obtaining ID,fee for photographs(usually four) etc..  At Equity Bank Uganda[estimated asset valuation of approximately US$64.1 million] account opening is free and all the customer has to do is present themselves with an identification.

Another example is understanding that  understand that some of the customers being serve are semi-literate so they ask them to come to our counters and they debt their cards or credit them for them.

Source

Equity Bank Uganda

Editor’s note :Customer service one of the pillar of business growth.

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