Mapping the Way Forward: African Businesses in a Globalized World

Africa's historical yields will no longer be competitive in many crops resulting in high importation bills governments can't afford, increased food inflation, and exacerbated poverty and food insecurity. One root issue in many cases is the inefficiencies inherent in small scale farming. Climate change will further compound these production risks. How are African food and agribusinesses preparing to remain globally competitive? How are firms successfully serving domestic markets in light of increasing currency risk and opportunity cost of focusing on exports?

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General Lunch

Although Entrepreneurship through Acquisition (ETA)— where entrepreneurs search for and acquire stable, cash-flow positive businesses to grow them over time—is growing in popularity across North America, few “search funds” have been established in Africa. Indeed, there has been limited data to support the case for investing in African search funds and the benefits of this novel asset class. 

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Still, ETA remains uniquely positioned to unlock value, attract talent, and accelerate the growth and development of SMEs—particularly family businesses—across the continent. This panel will focus on three key questions: 

(1) Is Africa ripe for the growth of search funds? 

(2) How can the traditional search fund model be adapted to work in/for the African context? 

(3) What other models can we leverage to see more African ETAs? 

(4) Share some success stories and what we can learn from them.

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