Vision: the MSME ecosystem across sub-Saharan Africa is characterised by trust and the availability of local skills, tools and services.

Our partners strengthen the business ecosystems in which MSMEs and other ecosystem actors operate, ensuring access to the necessary skills, information, tools and services. In doing so, rural-impacting MSMEs will be profitable and sustainable, strengthening their ability to serve those living in poverty.

In 2022, we provided core financial and non-financial support for impact networks unlocking value in rural-SME markets by connecting and coordinating actors across the ecosystem towards collaboration for systemic change. We supported research in East and West Africa to learn if embracing a network approach spurs greater collaboration. And we continued to invest in learning around trends and issues that have the potential to enhance and amplify effectiveness and/or efficiency across complex markets and systems.

Data, research and learning have the power to drive more informed decisions and investments. Through our partnership, AFRACA, a network of leading African financial institutions focused on agriculture and rural development, researched more about the impact of its members’ work, and catalysed further member engagement with training opportunities and thematic convenings.

In 2022 we provided core financial support for ANDE’s work, particularly in West Africa, to bolster its member engagement and market expansion strategies across the region. ANDE West Africa aims to better connect anglophone and francophone markets, drive cross-learning and create conditions conducive to collaboration; ultimately leading to a supported, thriving SGB ecosystem.

We also supported the Collaborative for Frontier Finance (CFF) to convene its Early-Stage Capital Provider (ESCP) network. ESCPs pave the way for later stage investors to invest at scale. They are critical to boosting innovation, investment, and livelihoods across African business ecosystems, yet they are seen as risky, and are undersupported and underrepresented. The ESCP network convenes stakeholders to discuss and identify common challenges, and collective opportunities to address them.

Since 2016 CFF has been building its network of early-stage capital providers to foster peer-to-peer learnings, identify priority initiatives and work toward collective action. The network has now grown to over 100 members across 30 countries globally. In June 2022, CFF hosted 45 early-stage capital providers from across SSA, MENA and South Asia managing a range of closed and open-ended investment vehicles, a group representing over $1.2 billion in potential capital.

CFF Capital Mobilisation Convening. The Hague, October 2022.

Impact networks provide a different way to structure engagement and action across multiple stakeholders, with a focus on building trusting relationships. Over three years we supported Creative Metier’s research project exploring the relevance and applicability of network thinking and practice to existing entities working across siloes and sectors in SME markets. In 2022 this led to the emergence of a peer-to-peer community, or ‘network of networks’, across East and West Africa. This work has shown value of facilitation, convening, intermediation and brokering skills in transforming SME markets.

Enabling flows of knowledge and experience across business systems to generate thriving economic opportunities for SMEs may seem intuitive, but these practices remain undervalued and underfunded. In part due to the complex challenge of getting the right information to the right people at the right time. Knowledge travels via trust across systems; and trust is hard to build and very easy to lose. The heart of this work is relational and we are committed to investing in the spaces that build strong, collaborative relationships across siloes and sectors to achieve systemic impact.