Proparco is supporting digital inclusion in Africa via an equity investment in the Convergence Partners Digital Infrastructure Fund

Convergence Partners, which was set up in 2006, is an investment management company focused on the TMT sector in Africa. Convergence Partners has a proven track record in developing new investment opportunities and creating added value for investments throughout the asset life cycle.

As an impact investor, Convergence Partners provides its expertise, experience and capital to accelerate access to communications and develop ITC infrastructure in Africa, by focusing on initiatives that increase access to communications for African people.

Convergence Partners Digital Infrastructure Fund (CPDIF) is an investment fund focused on investments in technological infrastructure throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. CPDIF is a USD 250m vehicle that aims to generate returns by capitalizing on the investment opportunity resulting from the digital transformation and fourth industrial revolution in Africa.

The Fund will seek to acquire strategic minority holdings with trusted and aligned partners with which it will exercise an effective joint control, or significant controlling interests, as the case may be. Convergence Partners anticipates that the Fund will invest in 8 to 12 companies with a standard investment size ranging between USD 20m and USD 30m.

The CPDIF project will contribute to digital inclusion in Sub-Saharan Africa by supporting the growth of  8 to 12 companies operating in the ITC sector. CPDIF will mainly focus on investments in digital infrastructure (fiber, 4G/5G, deployment of IoT/sensor networks, data centers, etc.), with a secondary objective of investing in data-based economic models (services using AI and big data).

The project is expected to support some 3,000 direct jobs from now until 2025 in the companies the Fund has invested in. A few years ago, Convergence introduced the Convergence Partners Sira impact model which measures investment performance via four pillars: Capital contribution, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and activities, Location and people and, finally, the Financial impact factor. The project will thereby contribute to SDG 8 (Decent work and economic growth) and SDG 9 (Industry, innovation and infrastructure).