Investing in a fund that supports SMEs in West and Central Africa

Joliba Capital is an African private equity firm majority-owned by LBO France, a multi-specialist and multi-country investment platform. It was co-founded by two African investment professionals, Hamada Touré (Managing Partner) and Yann Pambou (CEO & Managing Partner). The team has grown to five people from various African countries and with solid private equity and value creation experience in West and Central Africa. This multicultural team has been supported since its inception by LBO France, which has dedicated human and financial resources to this strategy and has also committed a significant amount in the fund. Joliba Capital can in particular rely on the expertise of the LBO France investment platform, which has been investing in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) for more than 30 years, as well as on its operating team and its expertise in ESG.

Proparco has invested EUR 14m as anchor investor in Joliba Capital Fund I (total amount of EUR 55m), alongside IFC and FMO. 

The fund will focus its investments in Francophone West and Central African countries to develop small and medium-sized regional champions seeking capital and operational support.

The project should achieve the following impacts:

• Support for SMEs in West and Central Africa for their development through capital injections, operational support and E&S expertise   
• Support for 17,112 local direct jobs, including almost 13,900 held by women (jobs in the investee companies) according to the pipeline provided by the fund 

The project will contribute to SDGs 8 (Decent work and economic growth) and 9 (Industry, innovation and infrastructure).