Chapel Hill Denham has disclosed that less than 1% of the capital managed by global institutional asset managers can change the course of Africa’s economic and social history and lift more than a billion people out of poverty over the next decade.
This was disclosed by the company through its Chief Executive Officer, Bolaji Balogun when it won an award at the UK’s Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) MOBILIST competition, on Friday.
According to the firm, sustainable infrastructure enables broad-based and inclusive growth across Africa and helps the continent meet the SDGs.
What Chapel Hill Denham is saying
Balogun said, “Over the next decade, less than 1% of the capital managed by global institutional asset managers can change the course of Africa’s economic and social history and lift more than a billion people out of poverty.
“A prosperous Africa can feed the world, resource the world and reverse migration. The foundation for delivering this is in accelerating the rate of institutional investment into low carbon, resilient infrastructure across Africa.
“We applaud FCDO’s decision to direct this capital via well-governed, financially transparent, listed, investment vehicles and are proud to have been shortlisted by the MOBILIST competition.”
Phil Southwell, Partner, Chapel Hill Denham further added: “Sustainable infrastructure enables broad-based and inclusive growth across Africa and helps the continent meet the SDGs. However, to get more investment, not only do we need to get corporates to invest more (they will only do so, knowing that there’s an ability to monetise and divest in the future), but we also need to deliver a diversified, yielding portfolio for institutional investors as they are not looking for one-off, greenfield investments. Our proposal in the MOBILIST process delivers this for corporates and investors.”
What you should know
Chapel Hill Denham was announced as winner in the UK’s, Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) MOBILIST competition for engaging financial institutions in search of the best proposals for mobilising capital for sustainable infrastructure.
In working with partners across the finance industry, the FCDO through MOBILIST is developing a platform that acts in public and private markets and represents a long-term commitment by the UK Government to securing new sources of investment at scale, to finance global development for decades ahead.
In his speech at COP26 in Glasgow, Rishi Sunak, Chancellor of the Exchequer bolstered his commitment to “rewire the entire global financial system for Net Zero” by pledging a further £66 million to expand the MOBILIST programme.
He also named Chapel Hill Denham Management Limited as one of five winners for its investment product ‘Africa Infrastructure Equity Fund,’ which aims to deliver clean and reliable infrastructure across the continent.