Financial services firm gets $20m for Africa expansion

Port Louis, Mauritius (Capital Markets in Africa): Mauritius-based financial services firm, afb, which provides innovative consumer and SME financial products, has signed a $20 million investment deal with GEMCORP, that enables the former to hasten its speed of growth within sub-Saharan Africa.

A statement from afb, quoted the firm’s chief executive officer, Karl Westvig as saying that the deal will help them extend to a number of countries within the next five years.

Currently, afb operates in Tanzania, Ghana, Kenya and Zambia. “This new investment will help accelerate our growth strategy into sub-Saharan Africa…..it will help us realise our plans to expand into a number of other African countries by 2020,” reads the statement.

According to the World Bank Global Financial Index, there are over 400 million adults in sub-Saharan Africa still outside of the formal financial system. “afb aims to provide accessible, responsible and inclusive financial products to those who have been traditionally excluded, and in so doing give them the tools to improve their lives,” said Mr Westvig.

Atanas Bostandjiev, CEO of GEMCORP, says: “Financial services is a key sector for our firm and we have been looking at the African market very closely, afb is a great investment opportunity for us. With its focus on driving financial inclusion through technology-based solutions, the company is poised for sustained and accelerated growth driven by the demand for access to credit amongst Africa’s growing middle class.”

“We highly value GEMCORP’s commitment to afb and its confidence in our vision and strategy for the company,” says Westvig. “We look forward to working together on the future development of afb.”