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6 African Business October 2024 Business Intelligence Deals The Fund for Export Development in Africa, the development impact investment arm of Afreximbank, has announced a strategic investment in Team Drogba, which competes in the inaugural E1 Series, the world’s first-ever all-electric boat racing championship. Co-owned by African football icon Didier Drogba and Lilium Capital Group, the team “will not only raise Africa’s profile on the global sporting stage but also support the growth of Africa’s blue economy,” the fund says. $1bn announced for Nigeria’s Coca-Cola value chains Coca-Cola Nigeria and bottler Nigeria Bottling Company say they will invest $1bn in the country in the next five years, more than doubling its rate of investment, assuming a “predictable and enabling environment in place”. The investment is expected to support various value chain areas, including suppliers, distributors, retailers, and rec yclers. Drogba’s electric boat racing team gets Afreximbank investment Unconventional Capital has €30m for early-stage SME development Uncap has launched Unconventional Capital, a €30m fund dedicated to early-stage small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across Africa. Unconventional Capital will collaborate with key partners, including Scaling Digital Agriculture Innovations through Startups (SAIS) – an ag-tech initiative funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation & Development (BMZ) and implemented by German development agency GIZ – and O-Farms, a “circular agriculture” programme run by the BoP Innovation Center (Bopinc) and funded by the Ikea Foundation. Backers include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Bayer Foundation. Senegal gets €227m for autonomous solar-powered streetlights Senegal will borrow €227m to finance the supply, installation and maintenance of 100,000 autonomous solar-powered streetlights across the country. The transaction finances the commercial contract signed between the Senegalese National Agency for Renewable Energies and Salvi Lighting Barcelona. The financing, signed in July 2023 and currently effective, was structured by means of a €220m facilit y covered by the Spanish Export Credit Agency (Cesce) under its Green Buyer Credit Policy, which was syndicated by Deutsche Bank with four other financial institutions, and a €7m commercial loan facility.
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October 2024 African Business 7 Business Intelligence News Gordhan’s reputation for probit y and competence helped South Africa to navigate years of political turbulence and economic drift, writes David Thomas. Pravin Gordhan, the globally respected two-time South African minister of finance, has died. He was 75. According to a statement from his family, Gordhan “passed away peacefully in hospital surrounded by his family, closest friends and his lifelong Comrades in the liberation struggle”. Gordhan ser ved as minister of finance from 2009-2014 and from 2015-2017, gaining a reputation at home and abroad as an honest dealer and safe pair of hands during years of political turbulence and economic drift under President Jacob Zuma, who sacked him twice. As minister of public enterprises from 2018-2024, Gordhan was tasked by President Cyril Ramaphosa with clearing out the Augean stables of South Africa’s state-owned enterprises after years of corruption and mismanagement, known locally as “state capture”. He first made his name as a commissioner of the South African Revenue Ser vice (SARS) from 1999-2009. In office he was frequently open about the challenges the nation faced and the tough reforms that he felt were necessary if South Africa was to again become economically competitive and chip away at its enormous unemployment figures. His forthrightness endeared him to investors and global counterparts, but frequently exposed him to political attacks at home. In March Gordhan announced that he was to retire from active politics following the May general election, at which the ANC lost the parliamentary majority it had enjoyed since the advent of democracy and was forced into a coalition with the opposition Democratic Alliance. ‘Beacon of our fight against corruption’ President Cyril Ramaphosa led the tributes to his longtime colleague. “We have lost an outstanding leader whose unassuming persona belied the depth of intellect, integrity and energy with which he undertook his activism, his duty as a parliamentarian and his roles as a member of Cabinet. Pravin Gordhan’s personal sacrifices and his endeavours and achievements in various sectors of our society endowed him with the insights, empathy and resilience that fuelled his ser vice to the nation. “In the latter years of this ser vice to the nation, and as a beacon of our fight against corruption, Pravin Gordhan stood up to derision Pravin Gordhan, respected South African former minister, dies and threats emanating from some in our nation who were scorched by his insistence that justice be dispensed against those who sought to undermine our democracy and raid our public resources a n d a s s e t s .” Life of service Pravin Gordhan was born in Durban in 1949 and studied for a bachelor of pharmacy degree at the University of Durban-Westville, which led to him working at the King Edward VIII Hospital in Durban from 1974 to 1981. He became involved with student and civic movements in the fight against apartheid, including as an executive member of the Natal Indian Congress. In the early 1980s his activism led to his dismissal from the hospital, as well as detention by police and banning orders. He also ser ved as a militar y operative in uMkhonto weSizwe, the armed wing of the African National Congress. During South Africa’s transition to democracy he played a leading role in the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA) dialogue and was chair of the Parliamentary Constitutional Committee.

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6 African Business October 2024

Business Intelligence Deals

The Fund for Export Development in Africa, the development impact investment arm of Afreximbank, has announced a strategic investment in Team Drogba, which competes in the inaugural E1 Series, the world’s first-ever all-electric boat racing championship. Co-owned by African football icon Didier Drogba and Lilium Capital Group, the team “will not only raise Africa’s profile on the global sporting stage but also support the growth of Africa’s blue economy,” the fund says.

$1bn announced for Nigeria’s Coca-Cola value chains

Coca-Cola Nigeria and bottler Nigeria Bottling Company say they will invest $1bn in the country in the next five years, more than doubling its rate of investment, assuming a “predictable and enabling environment in place”. The investment is expected to support various value chain areas, including suppliers, distributors, retailers, and rec yclers.

Drogba’s electric boat racing team gets Afreximbank investment

Unconventional Capital has €30m for early-stage SME development

Uncap has launched Unconventional Capital, a €30m fund dedicated to early-stage small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across Africa. Unconventional Capital will collaborate with key partners, including Scaling Digital Agriculture Innovations through Startups (SAIS) – an ag-tech initiative funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation & Development (BMZ) and implemented by German development agency GIZ – and O-Farms, a “circular agriculture” programme run by the BoP Innovation Center (Bopinc) and funded by the Ikea Foundation. Backers include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Bayer Foundation.

Senegal gets €227m for autonomous solar-powered streetlights

Senegal will borrow €227m to finance the supply, installation and maintenance of 100,000 autonomous solar-powered streetlights across the country. The transaction finances the commercial contract signed between the Senegalese National Agency for Renewable Energies and Salvi Lighting Barcelona. The financing, signed in July 2023 and currently effective, was structured by means of a €220m facilit y covered by the Spanish Export Credit Agency (Cesce) under its Green Buyer Credit Policy, which was syndicated by Deutsche Bank with four other financial institutions, and a €7m commercial loan facility.

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