USAID/West Africa Regional Roundtable on Private Equity and Investment Transactions

Join the next West Africa Regional Roundtable on September 27 at 15:30 GMT for a presentation from USAID/West Africa’s Trade Team, along with former USAID Chief Economist Louise Fox, on the elements of private equity investment, shifting trends of capital flows in Africa, and the potential impact on development objectives. Daniel Moore, Regional Mission Director for USAID/West Africa, will provide opening remarks.

Presenters:

1. Michael Nicholson, PhD, Trade and Investment Team Lead, USAID/West Africa
2. Louise Fox, PhD, Nonresident Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution
3. David Kritzberg, PhD, Economist, Appian Data Services

Concurrent with the ongoing pandemic, there has been an historical shift of capital flows into global equity, usually in the form of institutional investors. From November 2020 to April 2021, $576 billion was invested globally, an amount totaling more than the 12 years prior to the pandemic, combined. For perspective, this amount is nearly ten times the annual budget of USAID. These numbers indicate a potential shift in how capital flows around the world, including for developing countries. However, current tools do not adequately track these flows in a manner that provides actionable intelligence. 

The goal of the presentation is for attendees to: 

1. Develop a keener understanding of private equity investment trends in West Africa and across the continent.
2. Discuss the findings in the transaction-level studies on equity investment, with proposed adaptive management on existing USAID or other development programming.

For questions about the Regional Roundtables, please contact Michael Nicholson, mnicholson@usaid.gov, or Michael Andersson, mandersson@usaid.gov.