AfDB partners AHC to uplift Africa businesses
Local businesses could benefit from a partnership between the African Development
Bank (AfDB) and African Hidden Champions Initiative (AHC) efforts to promote the
growth of African companies and transformation into global champions, furthering
regional industrialisation.
The African Hidden Champions initiative is a partnership between Africa Foresight Group
(AFG) and Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft (DEG) to showcase and
celebrate the unique stories of sub-Saharan African businesses.
The objective of the initiative is to provide a platform that documents African business
growth stories to attract investment and growth support for companies that are
positioning themselves to go global.
The African Hidden Champions initiative has become a leading international platform for
showcasing and connecting Africa’s most promising companies
The initiative identifies African firms that are involved in building capacity for global
leadership in their sectors, which comes at a time Zimbabwe is looking at boosting local
businesses across value chains with emphasis on the export market.
In mining for example, the Government is targeting a US$12 billion revenue sector
starting this year. Elsewhere, national trade promotion body ZimTrade is also scouting
for export markets for various Zimbabwean products, while also capacitating producers
on export preparedness and competitiveness.
Such developments are expected to transform the economy into an upper-middleincome economy by 2030, which will be supported by the implementation of the NDS1.
According to AfDB, the initiative will help firms on their growth journey by telling their
stories, exposing them to new markets and networks, and providing technical assistance.
“The African Development Bank is proud to become a partner of the African Hidden
Champions initiative, which perfectly fits our strategy of driving and financing the
industrial development of Africa,” said Dr Abdu Mukhtar, director of Industrial
Development at the Bank.
He said the initiative would receive an amount of US$390 000 toward its activities to
enable its expansion and coverage into new sectors and markets within Africa, and to
provide more benefits and assistance to AHC members.
The African Hidden Champions initiative has become a leading international platform for
showcasing and connecting Africa’s most promising companies. In September 2022,
executives and founders from the first cohort of African Hidden Champions met for an
inaugural summit outside Frankfurt, Germany to discuss how Africa’s fastest-growing
and most inspiring companies could forge a path to global success.
Roland Siller, chief executive of DEG said: “The African Hidden Champions are setting
new standards for business excellence on the continent with their remarkable
achievements and unwavering commitment to growth. It’s a privilege to collaborate with
the African Development Bank to expand the Africa Hidden Champions initiative and
empower more companies to realize their potential and transform the African business
landscape.”
AFG CEO and co-founder of AHC, Yasmin Kumi, spoke of the initiative’s future
transformative impact on Africa’s private sector.
“It is time to change the narrative on African business and expose how big multinational
companies are growing from within Africa, challenging their peers in global markets,
and in doing so bolstering Africans’ pride in their home-grown businesses,” she noted.-The Herald
