IFC and IFC ALAC Fund Invest in Afrimax Group to Support Expansion in Region

Lagos, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa — IFC and the IFC African, Latin American, and Caribbean Fund (IFC ALAC Fund) have participated in a new round of growth financing for Afrimax to accelerate the rollout of its leading edge, LTE led business model, across multiple African markets. 

This latest investment round in Afrimax Group is led by Mitsui & Co., Ltd., the Japanese conglomerate headquartered in Tokyo, and includes participation from existing shareholders. IFC and the IFC ALAC Fund, a fund managed by the IFC Asset Management Company, contributed $14 million to the round, following earlier combined investments of $19.5 million in 2013. 

In November 2014, Vodafone and Afrimax Group jointly announced a non-equity strategic framework agreement to cooperate and explore opportunities for partner market agreements in the Sub-Saharan Africa region. Under this framework agreement, Vodafone Uganda was launched in February 2015, combining the deployment of new high speed 4G networks with the use of existing infrastructure for 2G/3G services. 

“Our continued support to Afrimax reflects IFC’s long term strategy to increase broadband access in Africa. Sub-Saharan African mobile penetration is around 85% but currently less than 10% of mobile phone users in the region can access the Internet by broadband connection. Afrimax is improving this, giving people access to efficiency gains, business opportunities and greater access to information” said Aniko Szigetvari, Global Head, Telecommunications, Media and Technology for IFC. 

Etleva Koka, Principal, IFC ALAC Fund said, “We are pleased to strengthen our partnership with Afrimax as it continues to grow in the region. The company has a strong track record of providing broadband internet services that are very much needed in the Sub-Saharan Africa countries.” 

Source: IFC, Sub-Sahara Africa website