From Business Day

Three years after disputed elections led to bloodshed, Ivory Coast has emerged as one of the most exciting opportunities for private equity investors in Africa, with a dynamic workforce keen to put a decade of turmoil behind it, a senior investor said on Friday.

Jean-Michel Severino, chairman of Paris-based Investisseurs & Partenaires, said its two funds totaling €65m aimed to provide investors with returns of up to 10 percent a year while fostering social development in Africa.

With interest in private equity in Africa booming, Severino said his firm was launching two new funds: a €50m venture with Schneider Electric for power projects and a €100m vehicle for small infrastructure development.

“Our aim is to promote entrepreneurs. These are the people who can provide a solution to Africa’s problem of unemployment and growth,” said Severino, a former World Bank executive who ran the French Development Agency (AFD) for a decade.

I&P’s two existing funds back 50 entrepreneurs across a range of sectors from healthcare to finance and agriculture, with just one golden rule — they avoid investing in economies dependent on oil or mining, like Nigeria.

“In these countries, which are victim to ‘Dutch Disease’, entrepreneurial activities are penalized,” said Severino.

He cited Ghana — whose economy grew by 7.1 percent last year on the back of oil, gold and cocoa exports — as another country offering fewer opportunities to entrepreneurs.

Ghana’s booming natural resources sales had pushed up prices, incentivizing imports and strangling economic diversification, complicating life for entrepreneurs, he said.

In contrast, his firm is enthusiastic about Ivory Coast and has made three investments in the country before the 2010-2011 civil war sparked by former Ivorian president Laurent Gbagbo’s refusal to recognize Alassane Ouattara’s poll victory, and has made two more since.

Written  by Daniel Flynn/Read more at Business Day