Celebrating 10 years of AFSIC – Investing in Africa: An Interview with MD, Rupert McCammon

What can I expect to experience when attending AFSIC?
AFSIC, now in its 10th year, is believed to be the largest African investment event taking place annually outside Africa and has become one of the most important conduits of investment into Africa. Over the past ten years AFSIC has been entirely focused on bringing together Africa’s business leaders and Africa’s most interesting investment opportunities with the continent’s most important investors and dealmakers to facilitate new investment into Africa.

Wide ranging support from exceptional partners and sponsors AFSIC, over the past ten years, has led the way in profiling investment opportunities from Africa and providing an excellent forum and associated platforms to showcase these opportunities to investors. AFSIC is a conference that is very focused on networking and delegates attend year on year as they feel the variety of interactions and the superb content delivered all contribute to getting deals done and investment secured. Supported and sponsored by some of the leading Africa-focused corporates, AFSIC 2023 will build upon the last ten years successes.

What sort of Networking Opportunities are there at AFSIC?
Networking and focused business meetings are at the heart of business at AFSIC. The AFSIC 2023 networking opportunities include:
• Matchmaking sessions facilitated through the sophisticated Event and Meeting App which goes live one month prior to the event
• A networking exhibition with key sponsors and partners offering enhanced opportunities to meet with them
• Numerous sessions dedicated to meeting a wide range of representatives from investor groups including: DFI’s, Impact Investors, Private Equity Investors and Venture Capital Investors
• The regularly sold-out Meet African Dealmakers event – this year to be jointly sponsored by the European DFIS
• Country investment summits focused on the fastest growing African economies with informal networking at the end of each session
• Various evening social functions hosted by our partners and sponsors

What sort of speakers and panel events can I expect to see on the Agenda of AFSIC 2023?
Our content is broken down into Industry Streams and this year these will include Advancing Agriculture, Building Africa, Banking on Africa, Fintech Innovation, Power Africa, Sustaining Africa and Informed Investing in parallel to country-focused investment summits and quick-fire sessions highlighting exceptional projects. Our speakers are from a wide pool of exceptional African business leaders who are looking to promote their Africa-focused company from an investment perspective as well as some of the leading institutional investors and dealmakers focused on driving investment into Africa. Our draft agenda at a glance is available on the website and speakers will be confirmed by the end of April 2023.

Which sponsors and partners are on board for AFSIC this year?
AFSIC 2023 welcomes British International Investment, FSD Africa, Executives in Africa, 27Four, Icecap, RMB, Fitch Ratings, Bank One, Alpha Morgan, Benchmark International, Pearlbridge Capital Managers, Mitco, Carey Olsen, Proparco, FMO, NIDP and DEG to date and negotiations are still ongoing with many other exceptional companies who see the value of the association with AFSIC in October and the all year round exposure via the digital platforms. Our excellent media and partners are also critical in raising the profile of both our sponsors and the conference itself.

What sort of Digital Presence and Reach does AFSIC have?
AFSIC has exceptional digital reach. We have a network of over 140 000 mailable contacts including institutional investors, investment bankers & financial intermediaries, African business leaders, providers and executives. The Group’s 3 websites capture 7,5 million impressions annually with impressive top 10 SEO ranking for over 1600 keywords relating to business, trade and investment in Africa. In addition, it is worth noting that AFSIC 2023, liked AFSIC 2022, will have all content recorded and live streamed enabling AFSIC to have an exceptional pan-African reach.

Can you tell us a bit more about the Digital platforms?
AFSIC boasts two award-winning digital dashboards focused on matching business, trade and investments opportunities across all African countries and all business sectors. The Africa Business Community provides a vast network of African businesses, global businesses, government agencies and service providers. In 2023 we are working closely with Prosper Africa, a US Government initiative, to substantially enhance US-Africa trade. Our sophisticated matching algorithm ranks and matches business opportunities and “calls for business” posted on our Africa Business Opportunities Dashboard, allowing interested parties to connect through this free and open access platform. We also have our closed AFSIC African Investments Dashboard which is catered to matching institutional investors and African companies seeking capital with investor-ready documents.

What sort of traction can I expect to get from investors when I post a business opportunity on the Business Opportunities dashboard?
In 2022 over 2 million personalised business matching emails were sent and our database sees 30 000 new contacts joining annually, all with an interest in business, trade and investment opportunities across Africa and all business sectors. Our AFSIC African Investments Dashboard has a network of 25 000 investors. Our recommendation is that all business opportunity owners make their descriptions as detailed and clear as possible to appear attractive to interested parties and investors.

How does the Business Opportunities Dashboard differ from the AFSIC African Investments Dashboard?
Our Africa Business Opportunities Dashboard offers free registration, access and connections for all users using automated matching algorithms and individually customised e-communication strategies. The AFSIC African Investments Dashboard is a closed dashboard only viewable by registered investors and uploads are only available for high quality projects seeking equity, debt or hybrid investment capital. We also offer additional bespoke introduction services for our AFSIC African Investments Dashboard clients.