Kofi Ahovi

  The Ghana Venture Capital & Private Equity Association (GVCA), one of Africa’s foremost VC industry associations, has demonstrated its commitment to fostering domestic and regional capital mobilization to enhance economic growth and protect the continent against external shocks. The association’s approach, consistent with national and regional policies to encourage Africans to invest in Africa, was projected at its recently held GVCA Conference in Accra. The decisive demonstration of momentum for domestic capital mobilization and inclusive investing saw key players from Africa’s private equity and pensions industries come together to launch an industry-wide ‘Compact’ championing local institutional asset allocations to venture capital and private equity. The inaugural set of signatories, including gender lens investing and regulatory leaders at the conference, featured advisors, fund managers, and Funds of Funds such as Deloitte, EY, KPMG, Aruwa Capital, Oasis Capital, Savann...

The General Manager of the Venture Capital Trust Fund, Hamdiya Ismaila, has called for reforms in the country’s financial sector to enable it to lend more support to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). She said the biggest challenge Ghana faced was a lack of what she described as “a very robust financial delivery system.” Our financial services sector is debt focused, everything in Ghana is about credit but the needs of really building businesses goes beyond credit.” So, we need a well-diversified financial services industry that could support anything from start-ups to early stage, to grow businesses and to mature business. And if we do not have those types of financing available, we probably will not be able to be self-sufficient,” she said at the third in the series of the Graphic Business/Stanbic Bank breakfast meeting in Accra yesterday. It was on the theme, “Living Within Our Means, an Imperative for Economic Success.” Ismaila noted that the missing link in the current structure...