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Since 2020, the British International Investment (BII) has significantly expanded its Africa portfolio. In 2021, the development finance institution (DFI) invested about £2.2 billion ($2.9 billion) in African businesses, exceeding a pledge made at the 2020 UK-Africa Investment Summit. Going forward, BII set a strategy to commit £1.5–2 billion ($2–2.6 billion) annually from 2022 to 2026, with Africa as a core focus. That focus has allowed BII’s annual commitments to Africa to explode, despite global headwinds. In 2023, £725 million ($970 million) was invested in Africa (about 55% of BII’s total that year) before surging to £1.09 billion ($1.45 billion) in 2024, nearly a 40% increase year-on-year. This period coincides with Chris Chijiutomi, a British-Nigerian with two decades of experience in investing across Europe, Asia, and Africa, becoming the managing director and head of Africa for BII. Now, Africa comprises roughly 60% of BII’s new investments by value in recent years, showing the continent’s priority in BII’s portfolio. BII has also steadily expanded its exposure to early-stage ventures and technology startups in Africa, positioning venture capital as a core instrument of its development mandate. As a limited partner, it has anchored several Africa-focused funds, including TLcom Capital’s TIDE Africa Funds I and II, Sawari Ventures in North Africa, and Novastar Ventures in East and West Africa. Alongside fund investments, BII has selectively deployed capital directly into startups like mPharma, to strengthen pharmaceutical supply chains, and equity investments in TradeDepot, Moniepoint, and Egypt’s Paymob. It has also backed off-grid energy companies such as M-KOPA and Lumos. For this week’s Ask an Investor, I spoke with Chijiutomi to understand the firm’s increased focus on Africa, the sectors that he’s willing to invest in, BII’s sudden profitability jump, how the firm picks its startups and funds, and the sector that has provided the most returns. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Is there any sector where you think your views have changed the most since you became BII’s Head of Africa? When I started this role, I would say renewable energy—especially decentralised renewable energy—was fairly nascent. The solar panels were relatively quite expensive, including the battery, and the uptake was also quite limited. Therefore, the technical and commercial viability was still quite nascent. But if I look at where I am now, and I remember driving from the airport to our office here, I could see a lot of solar panels on people’s rooftops. I could see solar panels on the streetlights. So I think, for me, what we call decentralised renewable energy—DRE—has been one area that has seen an absolute increase in uptake. That’s obviously also a function of the gap that exists in a country like Nigeria in terms of electricity access. That’s one key area. And what have we been doing in this space? We invested this year in a $7.5 million facility for a company called Odyssey Energy Solutions, which is a company that’s specifically focused on energy access with renewables. We provided a facility last year—$30 million—to InfraCredit, and InfraCredit is supporting a lot of renewable energy developers in Nigeria. That’s one area that jumps out at me in terms of a key sector that has evolved. The other one—probably more broad—is the whole venture capital space, the VC space, where people are using technology to develop solutions for their day-to-day problems in markets like Nigeria and broader West Africa. So those two areas, I would probably say, were areas where I’ve seen the most change since I took on the Head of Africa role. Get The Best African Tech Newsletters In Your Inbox Select your country Nigeria Ghana Kenya South Africa Egypt Morocco Tunisia Algeria Libya Sudan Ethiopia Somalia Djibouti Eritrea Uganda Tanzania Rwanda Burundi Democratic Republic of the Congo Republic of the Congo Central African Republic Chad Cameroon Gabon Equatorial Guinea São Tomé and Príncipe Angola Zambia Zimbabwe Botswana Namibia Lesotho Eswatini Mozambique Madagascar Mauritius Seychelles Comoros Cape Verde Guinea-Bissau Senegal The Gambia Guinea Sierra Leone Liberia Côte d’Ivoire Burkina Faso Mali Niger Benin Togo Other Select your gender Male Female Others TC Daily TC Events TC Scoop Subscribe What do you think is spurring this change? On DRE, it’s just the fact that no country can develop without energy infrastructure. The challenge we have in Africa—and especially Sub-Saharan Africa—is the lack of energy access. A country like Nigeria, with over 200 million people—at least that’s the last count—has less than 6,000 megawatts of electricity on the grid. Then, when you think about the rural and the peri-urban areas, a lot of them lack access to electricity. Just that failure is what’s led people to think about alternative solutions, and I think that’s where the DRE solutions come into play. I think on the VC side, with the uptake of the internet and the uptake of telecoms, that has really driven a lot of smart young Africans to think about how to use technology to solve their day-to-day problems—be it things related to payment systems, things related to logistics, or even things related to farming and climate-related data. I think all of this is all about problems that are preventing the continent from developing and growing. Those are the reasons why I think the uptake really has kind of moved onto that next level. Since you became Head of BII for Africa, what has been your Africa tech strategy? Has it evolved from before you took on the role, or have you maintained the same strategy at BII? I would say it’s evolved. Prior to me taking on the Head of Africa role, we’ve been investing in the venture capital space and also the private equity space, and the two kinds of interlink. I think since I’ve taken on the role, a big focus of mine has been: How can we find local African entrepreneurs to back? How can we make sure we go deeper in this area and we look for the right type of managers to basically give them our capital and the responsibility
Read MoreFynd, a Mumbai-headquartered AI-powered unified commerce platform backed by Reliance Retail Ventures, has launched in South Africa and onboarded Surtee Group, one of the country’s most prominent luxury fashion retailers with 94 boutiques, as its first strategic partner. The launch comes as South Africa’s online retail market targets a new era of growth and maturity. E-commerce sales are projected to reach nearly $7 billion in 2025, representing approximately 10% of national retail sales. The figure shows that the region presents a fertile ground for tech-enabled retail growth and makes it a strategic entry point into the continent. “South Africa is an exciting addition to our global footprint,” said Ronak Modi, Fynd’s Chief Business Officer. “The market is digitally ambitious, brand-forward, and ready for intelligent commerce infrastructure. Our goal is to help local retailers unify siloed systems, personalise engagement, and accelerate fulfilment without adding complexity.” Through its partnership with Surtee Group, Fynd will deploy its unified commerce stack, including digital storefronts, order management systems, tools for managing clientele, and warehouse management systems, to connect online and offline operations. This will enable real-time inventory keeping, ship-from-store fulfilment services, faster order processing, and more personalised in-store customer engagement, which can improve margins for luxury brands. The South African launch is the latest step in Fynd’s global expansion strategy. In September, the company launched its operations in Dubai and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, establishing a regional headquarters in the Middle East. In November, it established operations in the UK through partnerships with Bridgehead and Incrementum, companies that help startups scale. Fynd, which already supports 20,000 stores globally, provides an end-to-end commerce stack that unifies in-store, online, and logistics operations on a single platform, making the purchase journey easier for consumers. “Consumers expect seamless, personalised experiences across every channel, and retailers need agile, intelligent infrastructure to keep up,” Modi added. “Our platform is built to unify disconnected systems, speed up fulfilment, and elevate customer engagement; all without adding operational complexity.” Get The Best African Tech Newsletters In Your Inbox Select your country Nigeria Ghana Kenya South Africa Egypt Morocco Tunisia Algeria Libya Sudan Ethiopia Somalia Djibouti Eritrea Uganda Tanzania Rwanda Burundi Democratic Republic of the Congo Republic of the Congo Central African Republic Chad Cameroon Gabon Equatorial Guinea São Tomé and Príncipe Angola Zambia Zimbabwe Botswana Namibia Lesotho Eswatini Mozambique Madagascar Mauritius Seychelles Comoros Cape Verde Guinea-Bissau Senegal The Gambia Guinea Sierra Leone Liberia Côte d’Ivoire Burkina Faso Mali Niger Benin Togo Other Select your gender Male Female Others TC Daily TC Events TC Scoop Subscribe
Read MoreIf you wanted to understand the passion it truly takes to build a game in Africa, you only needed to witness the morning of MaliyoCon25, the inaugural gaming conference hosted by Maliyo Games, the game developer behind Safari City, Whot King, and Disney’s Iwájú: Rising Chef. The rain poured down heavily on Thursday morning, December 11, and the notorious Lagos traffic that might typically cripple an event. But that chaos only seemed to fuel the resolve of the attendees, as the room sat full. Nothing was going to hold back the people building Africa’s gaming future. The room was packed with game developers, founders, creators, and executives, including Hugo Obi, founder of Maliyo Games; Mathias Nørvig, CEO of SYBO Games, the studio behind Subway Surfers; Bukola Akinagbe, founder of Kucheza Games; and representatives from SuperCell, all drawn together by a shared belief that African-made games can stand confidently on the global stage. MaliyoCon25 was a checkpoint to evaluate how far the industry has come and to confront the hard truths of what must be done to develop the gaming ecosystem in Nigeria and across the continent. Navigating a “stop-start” ecosystem Amidst the applause, the conversation shifted to the reality of what it actually takes to run a studio in Africa. While the global gaming industry might face its own headwinds, the African context introduces a layer of friction that requires a unique kind of fortitude. Christopher Adomako, the Lead Product Manager at Maliyo, described the development lifecycle here as a start-stop process. “I don’t think I’ve ever worked on a project where we’ve started something, gone from brainstorming to game design, and everything just went straight to the hands of players. It has definitely been stop-start,” he said.” Whether it is battling poor internet connectivity or power outages, Adomako described the workflow as one that is rarely smooth. Creators must know exactly when to pause and when to resume, turning game development into a test of patience as much as skill. This environment demands a specific temperament from founders. Echoing a sentiment introduced by Deborah Mensah-Bonsu, global social impact lead at SuperCell, about the necessity of grit, Hugo Obi reinforced that to survive here: “You have got to be scrappy.” There is no room for waiting for perfect conditions or ample resources. Obi spoke openly about the structural issues that sit behind the work, the absence of industry data, weak monetisation systems on the continent, the pressure to train talent from scratch, and the constant battle to build while simultaneously keeping the lights on. “The challenge that we have is that all of the data that we have is third-party; it is somebody else’s data,” he said. “Nothing we do is easy. The funding is not easy, the production is not easy, the personnel management is not easy.” Talent remains the beating heart of this conversation. There are brilliant creatives across the continent, but developing them into production-ready professionals takes time. Data from the 2024 Africa Games Industry Report reveals that roughly 63% of local game developers have less than five years of experience in the industry. Reflecting on the early days of the industry, Obi shared his realisation about the attrition rate in the African gaming space. “Everyone I started with was gone,” he said. “ People had put years into this thing… at some point, I was the last man standing.” The ecosystem was trapped in a cycle where ambition wasn’t matching output because there was no pipeline to produce skilled developers. This realisation birthed Game Up Africa, a training programme for people interested in developing games. Get The Best African Tech Newsletters In Your Inbox Select your country Nigeria Ghana Kenya South Africa Egypt Morocco Tunisia Algeria Libya Sudan Ethiopia Somalia Djibouti Eritrea Uganda Tanzania Rwanda Burundi Democratic Republic of the Congo Republic of the Congo Central African Republic Chad Cameroon Gabon Equatorial Guinea São Tomé and Príncipe Angola Zambia Zimbabwe Botswana Namibia Lesotho Eswatini Mozambique Madagascar Mauritius Seychelles Comoros Cape Verde Guinea-Bissau Senegal The Gambia Guinea Sierra Leone Liberia Côte d’Ivoire Burkina Faso Mali Niger Benin Togo Other Select your gender Male Female Others TC Daily TC Events TC Scoop Subscribe There also lies the challenge of the audience. Obi noted that African creators are building for a market that is still forming its identity, with spending power that fluctuates and user behaviour that global benchmarks don’t capture. Layered on these challenges is the struggle for funding. While third-party data suggests the African gaming market is generating significant value, with revenue of about $7 billion in 2024 across the Middle East and Africa, capital flows to studios remain restricted. According to data from the 2025 African Game Developer Survey, only 3% of game studios have ever received government funding, underscoring how limited funding flows are for early-stage creators. Some exceptions highlight what is possible, as South African game developer Carry1st raised a $27 million round in 2023. This reality, where only a small fraction of developers secure meaningful investment, reinforces that fundraising is a persistent pain point in the game development industry. The future of game development in Africa MaliyoCon25 also made it clear that Africa’s game development is already taking shape, regardless of the difficulties. With programmes like Game Up Africa feeding talent into studios, partnerships forming across borders, including interest from institutions like Arizona State University, and creators gaining confidence in telling African stories. One of the recurring themes was that Africa’s strength will come from building with the continent’s own identity and structural realities in mind, rather than replicating what exists elsewhere. “I want us to be a net producer, as opposed to a net consumer of games. Nothing else matters. As long as Africa is not producing the games that Africans are playing… this needs to be done,” Obi declared, going so far as to call local game production “a matter of national security.”
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