The 11 winners of the first Africa Impact Investment Awards were announced in an online ceremony last week, aiming to highlight impact investing’s potential to drive more capital to social enterprises across the continent. Judge Sophia Omar, programme manager at the Impact Investing Institute (the UK’s national advisory board for the Global Steering Group for Impact Investment), said the awards played a “key role in growing the impact investing field” by highlighting opportunities across the continent. Just 6% of impact investing organisations, managing 2% of global impact assets under management, are headquartered in sub-Saharan Africa; organisations based in the Middle East and North Africa region account for 1% of global impact assets under management. Merlen said the quality of the nominations was proof of the development of the impact investing sector on the continent, adding that impact investing was “an indispensable component to financing the Sustainable Development Goals”. The awards use the Global Impact Investing Network’s definition of impact investments.
