Social Investors Network Launches Magazine Showcasing Africa as a Globally Competitive Destination of Impact Capital

Nairobi, Kenya. 17 November 2023: AVPA, a network of social investors collaborating to mobilize and deploy capital for impact in Africa, has today launched The Africa Advantage, a new magazine designed to showcase Africa as a globally competitive destination for impact capital.

Africa, while facing similar socio-environmental challenges as other developingnregions, contains a set of unique features which, when fully exploited, hold the potential for exciting sustainable solutions to both regional and global challenges.

The continent is often perceived as an impact destination, yet it is abundantly rich in untapped potential, which holds the promise of driving global innovative and transformative change. Africa’s unique advantage lies in its young and diverse population, natural resources and wide variety of social challenges which provide unparalleled opportunities for testing innovative and globally scalable solutions. This positions Africa as an ideal impact investment frontier and the world's premium sandbox for impactful innovation - testing new markets, products, services, innovative finance structures and impact business models.

“Africa's complex and unique social challenges have often been viewed as an embarrassment but instead, we see them as exciting impact investing opportunities for social transformation”, says Dr. Frank Aswani, CEO of AVPA and the Editor-in-Chief of The Africa Advantage magazine. “Through “The Africa Advantage” magazine, AVPA aims to enhance recognition of these distinct opportunities and the role of impact investment and global partnerships in leveraging them. We intend to connect a diverse network of social investors, ecosystem enablers, innovators, policymakers and knowledge actors, not just within Africa, but also with those from Asia, Europe, North and Latin America” adds Dr Aswani.

The magazine will feature a collection of sector, country or opportunity specific articles, written by African experts, highlighting these unique opportunities not just for Africa, but the world at large.

AVPA has compiled a list of accomplished contributors to the magazine; some of the leading African Impact Voices featured in this inaugural edition include Ojoma Ochai, Managing Partner of The Creative Economy Practice at CC Hub, Dr. Githinji Gitahi, Group CEO of Amref Health Africa, Kuria Wanjau, Fragile Communities and States Programme Manager at FSD Africa, Aakif Merchant, Associate Director at Convergence Blended Finance, Diana Tsitsiwu, Analyst at Tafa Business Advisory, and Eddie Sembatya, Founder and CEO of Finding XY.

The scope of The Africa Advantage goes beyond information dissemination to community building. The magazine serves as a foundation for a series of engagement activities designed to interface with the African and global impact communities to catalyze substantive local discussions, quantify and qualify regional opportunities and nuances and mobilize capital mobilization for impact. The ultimate goal is to showcase Africa’s unique impact opportunities, thus stimulating incremental impact capital deployment to and on the continent. Africa is a continent brimming with potential, innovation, human capital and a wealth of untapped opportunities. The “Africa Advantage” is one more addition to the now flowering narrative of an empowered continent grounded in the solid belief in collaboration, innovation and homegrown solutions.

About AVPA

AVPA is an ecosystem builder and a network of social investors collaborating to increase the flow of capital mobilised and deployed for impact across Africa. AVPA is the leading impact investing network and the only network in Africa that brings together social investors across the entire Continuum of Capital, i.e. Grants, Debt, or Equity, as well as deployers of intellectual and human capital.

Our mission is to increase the flow of capital into African social investments and foster its effective deployment for maximum impact.

We envision an African continent where collaborative and effective social investment results in exponential social impact and achievement of the SDGs.