The Africa Venture Capital Association (AVCA) has signed an agreement to receive support from the British Venture Capital Association (BVCA) – a deal supported by the UK Prime Minister, David Cameron.
AVCA has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with BVCA to boost the implementation of its re-launched strategy across Africa. The deal was sealed in Lagos during the UK prime minister’s tour of Africa to promote trade relations between UK and Africa-based businesses. The MoU was signed by Mark Florman, BVCA’s chief executive , who was part of the PM’s entourage, and Tokunboh Ishmael, an AVCA board member, and also Alitheia Capital’s co-founder.
The agreement will enable AVCA to receive technical support from the BVCA, which includes expertise in delivering training to fund managers and other professionals in Africa’s private equity industry. The support will also boost AVCA’s training to pension funds and other institutional investors, to encourage local institutional participation, an initiative supported by the Commonwealth Secretariat. AVCA will also tap BVCA’s research model, to provide in-depth and broad private equity information to the AVCA membership, and the broader global private equity industry.
“The signing of this MoU is a significant step for AVCA as it continues to strengthen its secretariat, to deliver value to its members and play a role in the development of private equity and venture capital across Africa,” said Tshepidi Moremong, AVCA’s chairperson [pictured].
The agreement is part of AVCA’s re-launched strategy to provide stronger support to Africa’s private equity industry, which will include appointment of a new managing director over the next month. Despite having a broad geographical reach across the continent, AVCA has been relatively inactive in recent times. The agreement comes at a time when investor focus on Africa is shifting from mainly South Africa and Egypt, to the broader burgeoning Sub-Saharan region.
“Africa’s status on the global economic stage has grown significantly in recent years as the continent has defied the economic downturn that affected the rest of the world,” said Florman. “As an international hub for global finance and industry, the UK has a key role to play in the future development of the continent, sharing knowledge and investing capital.”
