Greetings, Agents of Impact!
In ImpactAlpha Africa this month:
- Introducing African pension funds to ‘alternative’ assets
- Microlending for motorcycles and mobile phones
- ‘Batteries as a service’ as an alternative to diesel
Featured: Institutional Impact
Pension funds in Africa dip into alternatives to create local jobs and growth. The benefit schemes that safeguard workers’ retirements in Africa have stayed away from investments in private equity and private debt. Now they are being drawn to such alternative investments by the imperative to nurture the small and growing businesses that create jobs and power economic growth in their countries. “Start small,” says Jane Nzau, chairperson of Kenya’s Association of Retirement Benefit Schemes. “That’s how we started. We started with small ticket sizes, and gradually we have been increasing them as we go along.” Nzau also is the pension administrator of the Banki Kuu Pension Scheme, also known as the Central Bank of Kenya Pension Fund, which has invested in nearly a dozen private funds. Most of those investments are in funds from private equity firm AfricInvest, including AfricInvest’s evergreen Financial Inclusion Vehicle. It is in talks to support Kenya’s $200 million Green Investment Fund, which launched last year to support businesses providing low-carbon solutions and resource efficiency. In a video interview, Nzau says the pension recouped its capital from its first fund investment, and reinvested the funds in the next. “We have made good returns, and our return expectations have been met.”
- Locally rooted. Before they can invest for impact, African pension funds need the ability to invest in alternative asset classes at all. African pension funds hold around $600 billion in assets under management but just 10% of that is allocated to infrastructure, housing, private credit or small business finance funds per a report by FSD Africa and others. Nzau spoke at last week’s Capital in Common gathering in Naivasha, Kenya, which was hosted by Front End Ventures to connect Africa’s long-term savings to long-term growth. “Pension capital is more patient and is locally rooted,” Nikita Waruguru of Argidius Foundation, which supported the conference, tells ImpactAlpha. “When pension funds invest in their own local businesses, they create stronger alignment between economic growth, retirement savings and national development priorities. This moves development closer to self-sustaining capital rather than perpetual dependence on external funding.”
- Workers and savers. At last year’s All Africa Pension Summit, host NSSF Uganda encouraged its peers to look beyond investments in government bonds, which pensions typically consider to be safe investments. NSSF Uganda has committed $8 million to a $40 million fund for agriculture, to boost market linkages for farmers and convert them into pension contributors as their incomes grow. Its latest commitment is for a $100 million fund of funds for Ugandan funds supporting small businesses and contributing to large-scale job creation. NSSF Uganda was also the first pension backer of Pearl Capital Partners’ Yield Uganda Investment Fund, a €20 million ($23 million) fund backing local agribusinesses. NSSF Uganda, which manages 32.8 trillion Ugandan shillings ($8.4 billion) in assets, is under pressure to do more. “NSSF has got a lot of money,” Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni said at an event in Kampala last month. “They are making money in things that don’t solve our problem of jobs, which don’t add to our GDP.” Addressing NSSF directly, Museveni added, “You are a fund of workers. Your job should be to increase the number of workers who are getting jobs.”
- Keep reading, “Pension funds in Africa dip into alternatives to create jobs and growth, locally,” by Lucy Ngige.
Dealflow: Financial Inclusion
AHL Venture Partners provides $7 million in debt to microlender Watu Credit. Nairobi-based AHL Venture Partners re-upped its investment in Watu Credit, also in Nairobi, which provides microloans and assets financing for motorcycles and mobile phones. The 11-year-old company operates in eight African countries, including Kenya, Tanzania and Sierra Leone, as well as in Mexico and Brazil. “Watu’s asset-backed model is expanding financial inclusion and clean mobility for millions of underserved customers, generating exactly the kind of measurable social and economic impact that sits at the heart of AHL’s priorities,” said AHL’s Rosanne Whalley in a statement. The debt financing will help the company accelerate lending to buyers of electric motorcycles. Share this post.
In other impact deal news:
- 🍚Food systems. Africa Eats made its third investment in Malawi, by backing the rice processing and exporting company Chambayika Milling. Malawi’s rice growers have been struggling due to power and currency challenges, but Africa Eats says it’s keen on Malawi as a market. “The evidence keeps pointing us back.” (Africa Eats)
- 🌞Clean energy. The Private Infrastructure Development Group and Impact Fund Denmark reupped their investments in Africa GreenCo. The renewable energy trader and offtaker “increases energy security and curbs emissions by balancing clean energy services across multiple markets,” PIDG wrote in a statement. “It also strengthens regional integration.” (PIDG)
- 🏥Good jobs. Africa Jobs Fund invested in Nairobi-based Velocity, a language training startup that helps African nurses secure jobs in Germany. Germany has a major nursing shortage, while Velocity’s markets of Kenya, Zambia and Malawi have “thousands of qualified unemployed nurses,” Africa Jobs Funds’ Daniel Yu wrote about the deal (see, Agent of Impact). The philanthropic venture fund invests in companies providing stable, quality jobs for Africa’s young people. (Africa Jobs Fund)
Signals: Energy Access
With ‘batteries as a service,’ bPOWERd aims to distribute power in Africa. Africa’s barber shops, Internet cafe operators, kiosks and other businesses are getting their electricity from an unlikely source: gas stations. In Lagos, small business customers can walk into a handful of Mobil gas stations and rent batteries to power their businesses with almost the same ease that motorcycle taxi drivers can swap out electric batteries for their bikes. The startup bPOWERd offers “batteries as a service” as a cheaper and cleaner alternative to diesel fuel-powered generators in places where the electricity grid breaks down or doesn’t reach. The batteries help small businesses cut their daily energy costs by $5 or more per day, says Akosua Acheaw of bPOWERd, which has swapping stations in both Nigeria and South Africa. “When people are living on a day-to-day basis, it’s a huge saving for them.” bPOWERd has so far facilitated around 125,000 battery rentals. A customer in Nigeria who would normally pay 10,000 naira ($7.50) per day to fuel a generator pays 1,500 to 3,000 naira for bPOWERd’s fully-charged batteries. “They have saved me a lot of money,” says Uzoma Ekeanyanwu, who runs a cyber cafe in Lagos.
- Good business. bPOWERd is an in-house innovation at oil major BP. The fossil fuels giant has been rolling back its renewable energy commitments. But renewables are good business, especially in emerging markets, says Jonathan Lule, who leads BP’s emerging markets strategy and founded bPOWERd. Lule says the startup’s focus is on informal city businesses and workers because they have largely been left out of energy access efforts. Most do have access to the grid, but live in places where the grid isn’t reliable or where power isn’t affordable. “The grid is not the wrong idea, it’s just the wrong timeline,” Lule tells ImpactAlpha. The company is raising seed financing and plans to eventually spin out of BP.
- Keep reading, “With ‘batteries as a service,’ bPOWERd aims to distribute power in Africa,” by Lucy Ngige.
Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent
Ichem Besseghir, formerly at Proparco, joins the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development as associate director, focusing on infrastructure in Africa and the Middle East… ATG Samata’s Lelemba Phiri and Helvetica.ai’s Oliver Werneyer join the Inclusive Insurance Investment Fund’s investment committee as independent members… Harriet Adinkrah is promoted to principal at 4DX Ventures… Xolisa Manzana joins British International Investment as an impact development executive.
Incofin is hiring a debt investment manager for its sustainable food division… The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change seeks a senior advisor for climate investment and private sector development…BURN is recruiting a carbon coordinator… Open Society Foundations seeks an investment associate for the Soros Economic Development Fund… One Acre Fund is hiring a monitoring, evaluation and learning lead in Malawi.
👉 View (or post) impact investing jobs on ImpactAlpha’s Career Hub.
Thank you for your impact!
– Sept. 15, 2026