4 African Business May 2022

Business Intelligence Deals

Finnfund, a Finnish development financier and impact investor, has provided a $10m debt facility to agri supply chain manager Valency International Trading to set up a cashew processing plant in Côte d’Ivoire. The plant is expected to have a processing capacity of 45,000 tons of raw cashew nuts per year, generating approximately 2,000 direct jobs. It aims to increase domestic cashew nut processing capacity and create quality jobs for low-skilled workers, especially women, and will focus on developing supply chains relying on smallholder cashew producers in rural areas.

Google to invest $1bn in Africa

Google is investing in its first Africa product development centre in Nairobi. The US tech giant is hiring engineers, product managers, user experience designers and researchers in the Kenyan capital, executives confirmed in a blog post. The company is planning $1bn of investments over five years to help countries accelerate digital transformation and has already opened an AI centre in Accra, Ghana. The firm expects the continent to host 800m internet users by 2030.

Finnfund invests in Ivorian cashew industry

Swedish fund plans second African investment

Norrsken22, an Africafocused fund founded by Swedish tech startup entrepreneurs, expects to raise over $200m this year. The joint initiative between Hans Otterling, a partner at Northzone Ventures, and Niklas Adalberth’s Norrsken Foundation has already raised $110m and is planning a $125m raise in September. The fund, which targets African firms in the scaling-up phase, is planning to seal its second investment in May after its first investment in Nigerian retail linkage startup Sabi, reported Bloomberg.

De Beers signs mineral investment contracts with Angola

Diamond miner De Beers Group has signed two mineral investment contracts (MICs) with Angola for licence areas in the country’s northeast. The MICs cover all stages of diamond resource development, from exploration to mining, and span a period of 35 years. Each concession area will be held by a separate new joint venture company formed by De Beers and Endiama, Angola’s stateowned diamond company. De Beers will hold a substantial majority in the new companies, with Endiama having the ability to incrementally increase its equity share over time. De Beers last operated in Angola in 2012.