The agriculture and food sector remains an attractive investment opportunity for private investors in Africa. With strong underlying growth drivers such as population, urbanization, and the rise of the middle classes, it is expected to remain so. 

This month, our profile feature covers the first climate adaptation-focused agribusiness fund for African smallholders, Acumen Resilient Agriculture Fund (ARAF). We speak with ARAF’s Managing Director Tamer El-Raghy. who says that the Fund was created to help overcome the structural challenges that smallholder farmers face, and to support commercial and scalable agribusinesses that enable farmers to adapt to climate change and strengthen their livelihoods. Learn more on pp. 14-15.
Much of the innovation in the industry focuses on platforms that either connect people or help to create scale between small-scale farmers. This is according to James Rae, International Funds Counsel, who shares his thoughts on Agriculture technology (Agtech) on p.16.
Meanwhile, Adrian Mayer, Partner & Head of the Africa Group, Charles Russell Speechlys, outlines four broad themes in African agriculture sector on p.17. The firm has been active advising clients investing or operating the agri sector in Africa since the 1990s.

We would also like to invite you to our next webinar (hosted on www.africaglobalfunds.com), which will be focusing on Agri & Food investing in Africa. The webinar is scheduled for Wednesday, September 8 at 9am EST (2pm UK, 3pm South Africa). Join AGF and leading PE industry experts to learn more about opportunities, risks and the outlook.

In this month’s issue we also catch up with two long-only equity asset managers, Steyn Capital and BCCM Advisors - to discuss funds’ investment strategies, investment opportunities in Africa and trends in the African asset management industry. Read on pp. 18-19 and p.24.