Publication database

This research maps 50 funders actively investing in last mile distributors (LMDs) across different stages of company growth - pre-seed, seed, early growth and accelerated growth - to identify gaps and opportunities.

This report takes stock of the increasingly pluralistic landscape of agricultural small- and medium-sized enterprise (agri-SME) finance in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, with the aim to establish a new perspective on the market overall - sizing and segmenting the market in new ways, reflecting on the rapidly accelerating imperative around climate, and identifying new priorities for action.

This Access to Finance Guide has been put together  to help entrepreneurs, and women-owned small and growing businesses, through their funding journey. The guide will provide information about the funding landscape in South Africa, types of funders, criteria, the process, tips from funders, and more. 

The aim of this report is to document best practices by taking a micro-level deep dive into why women entrepreneurs applying for ‘missing middle’ funding (i.e., in the range of USD 30 000– USD 500 000) more often fail than succeed. This report focuses on the demand and supply issues related to women entrepreneurs access to finance in South Africa and Zambia. The study provides a baseline assessment of a cohort of women who participated in the Graça Machel Trust’s Women Creating Wealth (WCW), a Pan African entrepreneurship development programme whose aim is to grow businesses and transform behaviours, skills and build the confidence of women entrepreneurs.

This report is part of a wider study that aims to understand the impact of gender lens investing on women’s social and economic empowerment. It seeks to build a case for gender lens investing in women-focused enterprises through primary research with over 20 such enterprises and over 150 of their women employees, partners and customers across India, Indonesia, Kenya and Rwanda.

The AVPA Landscape for Social Investments in Africa report maps the diverse field of social investment across East, West and Southern Africa. It focuses on providers of social capital, their investment strategies, and opportunities for collaboration. In each of these regions, hundreds of institutions are deploying capital to achieve ambitious social and environmental goals.

At the GOGLA Forum in Nairobi six active lenders to PAYG companies - SIMA, SunFunder, responsAbility, OIKO credit, Lendahand and CDC Group - shared their lessons learned and provided an outlook on the sector. This short report is a structured summary and reflection on the key points that came up.

Africa has long been on the frontier of the global investment landscape and still accounts for a small share of the world economy. But looking ahead, we see a range of fundamental supports for economic activity and prospective investment returns on the continent. This reports outlines the growth story in sub-Saharan Africa and begin to uncover some of the key investment themes that are developing across the region.

The off-grid solar energy industry is generating thousands of jobs across East, West and Central Africa as well as South Asia. GOGLA's latest report Off-Grid Solar. A Growth Engine for Jobs estimates the sector currently supports 370,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs across these four regions. With investments and the right policies, the off-grid solar sector could create 1.3 million FTE jobs across East, West and Central Africa as well as South Asia by 2022.

This presentation makes a case for an Indian-Japanese partnership for collaborative investments into African projects.