Dear Friends and Partners,
Happy New Year! We hope you had a restful holiday and that 2023 is off to a good start.
2022 was daunting – many of our clients were hit hard by inflation, food insecurity, supply chain shocks, and a sudden tightening in global capital availability. But we also saw an immediate response and more willingness to act than ever – billions in investment dollars continued to flow into Africa while we pulled together to launch new, creative and exciting initiatives across climate, gender, health, and agriculture.
At OCA, we were proud over the year to help more than 125 African SMEs to strengthen and scale their businesses, to raise US $200M+ of fresh capital for our African clients, and to launch new initiatives and funds with great organizations like Acumen, DOEN Foundation, FCDO, Gates Foundation, Shell Foundation, USAID, and many others to combat climate change, scale gender smart approaches, increase access to energy, increase food security, accelerate water access, and improve livelihoods in refugee-hosting communities.
A few 2022 highlights:
- Advised 125 African SMEs across 20 countries in Africa to build their capacity to scale, increase jobs, and advance local economies
- Advised 25 of Africa’s most innovative companies to raise > US $200M (ranging from $200k to $25M) to tackle major challenges in access to energy and water for the hardest-to-reach, gender equity, climate adaptation, access to trade finance and micro-insurance, smallholder agriculture, e-mobility, and others
- Launched a new climate finance vehicle to replace diesel generators in Nigeria with solar, in partnership with the Access to Energy Institute and DOEN Foundation
- Co-authored the global off-grid solar industry’s flagship Market Trends Report, published by the World Bank’s Lighting Global, the International Finance Corporation, GOGLA, and Efficiency for Access Coalition
- Advised >40 African-owned SMEs on capital raises across some of Africa’s toughest markets, including Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, Sierra Leone, The Gambia, and Togo through investment attraction programs backed by USAID, FCDO, and others
- Authored several research papers to further sensitize markets to the opportunities in gender lens investing (GLI) and supported 15+ agribusinesses to increase their gender impact in internal operations and their supply chains
- Supported dozens of partners across the region to successfully improve access to markets and finance for refugees and host communities, and launching a new, exciting partnership with the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation to strengthen and scale education and childcare services for refugees in Uganda and Ethiopia
Check out our impact report for more detail on these and other case studies below.
We are excited to have scaled our presence, now with team in Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Senegal in addition to our offices in Kenya, Uganda, and Zambia. Our team is now over 150 full-time staff and we are looking forward to continued, exciting growth in 2023 – if you or someone you recommend might be interested in joining us, please take a look at our open opportunities and reach out!
2023 will be a difficult year in many ways and we’re all bracing for it. But it’s also a year with tremendous opportunity to see real change for the better. We’re so excited to work with you to achieve this!
All our best,
Annie & Andreas
