The Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF) is to commit GH¢25million to the Injaro Ghana Venture Capital Fund (IGVCF), which is managed by the Injaro Investment Advisors Ltd. (IIAL).
Consistent with MIIF’s mission to become a lever for Ghana’s development and Injaro’s objective of building sustainable African businesses, the investment strategy for IGVCF is to partner with best-in-class profitable Ghanaian SMEs with strong growth potential across various sectors, including mining support services, food & agribusiness, education, healthcare, inclusive financial services, industrial services – including services for the mining and oil and gas sectors – as well as light manufacturing. IGVCF will also promote environmental, social and governance best practices across its portfolio companies in its bid to contribute to job creation and sustained economic growth.
The fund will make equity, quasi equity or debt investments in SMEs mainly in Ghana and in Côte d’Ivoire.
Edward Nana Yaw Koranteng, the Chief Executive Officer of MIIF, commented: “This is MIIF’s first investment in the alternative asset class and we are delighted at this.
“The objective of MIIF, in line with President Nana Akufo-Addo’s vision, is to invest in the development of the entire mining eco-system or value chain which covers the mining supplies and services sector, even to the micro or SME level. As part of our alternative investment or diversification strategy, MIIF sees this Injaro opportunity to invest in private equity as a conduit to support this mining sub-sector and ultimately, the growth of the real economy in Ghana.”
Jerry Parkes, Managing Director of IIAL, commented: “The Injaro team is excited and grateful for this opportunity to work with MIIF to further entrench private equity as an attractive asset class, which can be an effective tool for growing the real economy in Ghana while delivering long-term social and financial returns for local investors. Having already secured GH¢127m for IGVCF primarily from local pension funds, and with a mandate from investors to grow the fund to GH¢400m, the Injaro team welcomes commitments from institutional investors that want to diversify their portfolios and who are aligned with Injaro’s vision of growing the real economy in Ghana”.
