Southern Africa—USAID Mobilizing Investment Project

African markets present a broad range of attractive investment opportunities in emerging sectors, such as digital and technology infrastructure (especially fintech), education, and healthcare, as well as the more traditional sectors of agribusiness, logistics, financial services, and energy. South Africa, a top investment destination on the continent, is becoming an important gateway to new opportunities in other Southern African Development Community countries.

Despite bright spots, gaps persist in the ecosystem to finance small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), tech-enabled companies, and growth businesses, creating challenges for businesses as they maneuver through successive stages of their growth lifecycle. Chief among those gaps is the lack of growth capital to scale promising businesses that obtained early funding. Increasing investment supports the expansion of the private sector and catalyzes economic growth in the Southern Africa region.

The USAID Southern Africa Mobilizing Investment Project promotes inclusive economic growth and self-reliance in the region. We partner with businesses and capital providers to better enable investors and funds to mobilize private capital into sectors with the potential to address Southern Africa’s development challenges. We address the spectrum of funding gaps in Southern Africa’s investment ecosystem to deliver the sustainable investment flows, market skills, networks and innovations, and new market actors needed to maximize that ecosystem’s development impact.

Sample Activities

• Mobilize catalytic capital to establish sustainable investment flows into sectors previously underserved by investors.
• Develop the capacity of fund managers.
• Work with businesses and capital providers to identify bankable investment opportunities and perform the necessary due diligence.
• Facilitate connections between U.S. and Southern African capital providers.