Mastercard Announces its $200m Foundation Africa Growth Fund
An initial $200 million has been pledged to the Mastercard Foundation Africa Growth Fund (MFAGF), a fund of funds that works through African investment vehicles to promote early-stage, growth-oriented SMEs on the continent.
The Mastercard Foundation Africa Growth Fund seeks to provide young people, especially young women, with access to respectable and worthwhile employment. The fund of funds is audacious and catalytic, aiding in the crowding in of capital for African entrepreneurs by bolstering and reducing the risks associated with African investment vehicles dedicated to achieving gender equity in entrepreneurship.
The MFAGF will offer a business development facility for its portfolio firms in addition to funding for investment vehicles. The program will support the Mastercard Foundation’s Young Africa Works plan, which seeks to provide access to 30 million young people in Africa, particularly young women, to meaningful and respectable employment by 2030.
Two investment entities encouraging entrepreneurial growth have already been recruited by the Fund-of-Funds, one in East Africa and one in West Africa.
Dr. Dorothy Nyambi, president and CEO of MEDA, stated, “We need to do everything it takes today to develop a continent with shared prosperity and sustained, inclusive growth.” Through investments in small and medium-sized businesses, “this fund of funds will build and empower a new generation of African investment vehicles to enable decent job creation for women and youth.”
