Everyone Invests in Africa. Very Few Actually Deploy Capital. - A Thought Leadership Opinion by Anjo De Heus
Everyone Invests in Africa. Very Few Actually Deploy Capital. Why Africa’s real investment story begins after the LinkedIn posts end. The Illusion of Abundance Scroll LinkedIn on any given day and you could be forgiven for thinking Africa is awash with investors. Every week, new “Africa-focused funds” emerge. Capital announcements circulate. Thought leadership flourishes. Everyone seems to be backing the continent’s next chapter. And yet — on the ground — the same founders, operators, and governments are still asking the same question: “Who actually writes the check?” This disconnect is not accidental. It is structural. Africa does not suffer from a shortage of interest . It suffers from a shortage of deployable, decision-ready capital . The Hidden Math Behind “Africa Investment” Let’s remove the clutter. If you map the Africa-focused “investment” ecosystem visible on LinkedIn, you quickly discover three layers: Layer 1: The Visible Layer (Very Large) Thousands of profiles, c...