Accra, Ghana – June 2025. Leaders from across Africa’s impact investing ecosystem gathered on June 11-13, 2025 at the Kempinski Hotel in Accra, Ghana for the Africa Impact Summit, a platform that convened over five hundred (500) policy makers, entrepreneurs, investors, and development partners for collaboration, networking, and impact investing action to explore scalable strategies for accelerating sustainable economic growth across the continent under the theme, “Transforming Systems: Redefining Impact for Real Change in Africa.”
Hosted by the Africa Impact Investing Group (AIIG), Impact Investing Ghana (IIGh), Impact Investors Foundation(IIF), Impact Investing South Africa (IISA), Impact Investing Kenya (IIK), NABII Zambia and GSG Impact, major milestones of this year’s summit included the launch of the Africa Pensions Collaborative and the Africa Fund of Funds Initiative. The Summit also featured a Study Tour of Nigeria, the Africa Impact Policy Dialogue, which brought together policymakers from across the continent, and a Catalytic Capital breakfast for foundations, international development agencies and other catalytic capital providers, among other groundbreaking actions to drive inclusive, scalable, and sustainable investment across the continent.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, Alex Asiedu, Board Chair of IIGh said “This year’s theme, Transforming Systems, Redefining Impact for Real Change in Africa, is both timely and also provocative. It calls us to move beyond pilot projects and isolated ones. We’ve been doing that for a long time. We must align capital with our context. We must build trust across our sectors. And we must measure success not merely by financial returns, but by lives that are transformed.”
On her part, Ibukun Awosika, Vice Chair of GSG Impact and Chair of the GSG Nigeria Partner added that: “The reality is, where the world is right now, we need to get our act together and make sure things work for us. And we need to make it work in a way that is catalytic, that turns things around on an exponential level. This conference has to be additional. It cannot be one more conversation. It has to be a conversation that causes real change, one that offers takeaways that we can act on and implement.”
Africa Fund-of-Funds initiative to streamline impact reporting in Africa
The Africa Fund-of-Funds Initiative (AFFI), led by the AIIG in partnership with GSG Impact, brings together Fund-of-Funds, Wholesale Funds, and major capital platforms like the Ci-Gaba Fund of Funds, Venture Capital Trust Fund, Nigeria Wholesale Impact Investment Fund, Zambia Small Business Growth Initiative and others to harmonise their impact measurement and management (MM) practices. The initiative will reduce the impact reporting burden on their investee funds and foster shared learning and collaboration with other stakeholders. The initiative directly addresses long-standing inefficiencies that hinder capital and enterprise growth, especially in co-investment scenarios, by championing simplified, standardised reporting and a collaborative approach to data and decision making.
Africa Pensions Industry Collaborative to document learning from unlocking local pension funding
The Africa Pensions Industry Collaborative is a collaborative project of the Africa Impact Investing Group (AIIG) aimed at documenting and accelerating the efforts of African nations to harness their burgeoning local pension funds and fuel the growth of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), thereby driving economic transformation across the continent. During the launch of this initiative, Amma Lartey, CEO of Impact Investing Ghana (IIGh), shared the need to learn from Africa’s emerging success stories around unlocking local pension capital for impact investing. She explained that the initiative would share initial case studies from Ghana, Nigeria, and Zambia, contributing knowledge to support countries at the early stages of the journey of unlocking local pension funding and chronicle the evolution of private pension schemes, regulatory changes, and policy actions that enable transformation in pension fund investment behaviour. “It is about sharing knowledge and ensuring that it is able to impact other countries”, she said.
Etemore Glover, CEO of Impact Investors Foundation (IIF), in introducing the Africa Fund of Funds Initiative, said, “The growing emergence of fund-of-funds vehicles across Africa is a strategic mechanism for mobilising local capital at scale. We want to align our impact measurement and management systems so that impact is not a reporting burden or an afterthought, but an operational driver that helps funds make better decisions and do better.” She highlighted vehicles such as the Ci-Gaba Fund of Funds and Venture Capital Trust Fund (VCTF) of Ghana, $1 billion Nigerian Wholesale Impact Investment Fund and the Small Business Growth Initiative of Zambia as the key drivers of this initiative. The initiative called on other African wholesale impact funds and Fund of Funds to join and co-develop a harmonised reporting and impact evaluation standard.
Study Tour to Nigeria
The Africa Impact Summit 2025 kicked off with a Study Tour to Lagos from 8th to 10th June. The tour, the first of its kind since the inception of the Summit, provided a unique opportunity to welcome and introduce the CEO of GSG Impact, Elizabeth Boggs Davidsen, and other participants to the impact investment community in Nigeria. During the two-day event, delegates gained firsthand insights into Nigeria’s dynamic investment landscape, connected with innovative enterprises and impact investors, engaged with industry thought leaders on investment policies and participated in ministerial advocacy visits to advance discussions on catalysing economic growth through impact investments.
The Africa Impact Policy Roundtable and Catalytic Capital Breakfast
Participants also convened in a high-level policy session dubbed “The Africa Impact Policy Roundtable” which brought together government officials, regional institutions, pension funds, development finance institutions (DFI’s), and investment platforms to explore actionable policy interventions for unlocking domestic institutional capital into Africa’s impact economy.” The Summit also convened foundations, international development agencies and other catalytic capital providers in an intimate Catalytic Capital Breakfast to explore how to mobilise billions to drive innovation and impact across Africa. The sessions closed with a shared commitment to foster cross-sector partnerships, improve data for decision making, and accelerate the flow of catalytic capital toward Africa-driven development solutions.
The summit featured engaging discussions, panels, networking sessions, and an action wall where participants could make an action pledge. Topics covered included impact investing to drive systems change, regional collaboration in building robust impact ecosystems, the role of blended finance across the investment continuum, and how emerging technologies such as Fintech and AI are reshaping Africa’s development landscape. The Summit also marked the launch of the fourth edition of the Africa Investment Insights Report by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). This comprehensive, data-rich report tracks policy innovations and investment trends across more than 20 African countries, offering practical intelligence to create a more investment-ready climate.
The summit concluded with the prestigious Africa Impact Investing Awards presented by Krutham, during a Gala Night to celebrate the richness of African culture and excellence sponsored by First National Bank.
Zambia to host Africa Impact Summit 2026
Zambia was announced as the next host of the fourth edition of Africa Impact Summit in June, 2026 at a vibrant closing ceremony. The Africa Impact Summit 2025 was made possible through the support of partners, including the AIIG, Ford Foundation, UNDP, GSG Impact, Skoll Foundation, UNCDF/Convergence, RISA fund of UK International Development, VCTF, and many more committed to reshaping the future of investment in Africa.
— End —
About the Africa Impact Investing Group
The Africa Impact Investing Group (AIIG) is a dynamic network working with policymakers, investors, entrepreneurs, and civil society to channel capital towards impactful initiatives that also deliver financial returns. AIIG comprises the African National Advisory Boards for impact investing in Kenya, South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria and Zambia; supported by affiliated African Task Forces in Burkina Faso, Senegal, Namibia, Tanzania, Mauritius & Seychelles to build a stronger ecosystem for Impact Investing across the continent. Read more here https://africaimpactinvest.org/
About Impact Investing Ghana
Impact Investing Ghana (IIGh) is an organisation focused on promoting sustainable development and growing the impact investment ecosystem in Ghana. As a member of the Africa Impact Investing Group, IIGh aims to catalyse US$1 billion in impact funds for Ghana and Africa. Through research, it identifies opportunities and gaps hindering capital flow and business growth and unites the ecosystem to address them. Notable initiatives include the Deal Source Africa platform, the Ci-Gaba Fund of Funds to unlock pension funding, and the ESO Collaborative to enhance business quality. Read more here: https://impactinvestinggh.org/
About Impact Investors Foundation
The Impact Investors Foundation (IIF) is a leading organisation dedicated to advancing impact investing in Nigeria by facilitating knowledge sharing, policy advocacy, and information flow to encourage the development of impact investing. Its vision is to unlock domestic and international capital, seeking to make impactful investments that benefit people across diverse sectors and geographies in Nigeria. IIF has significantly advanced Nigerian impact investing through convenings, deal matchmaking, capacity building, and research. Its public-private partnerships have garnered government support, notably positioning the Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning as the Champion Ministry; and leading to the $1 billion Nigerian Wholesale Impact Investment Fund. The GSG Nigerian Partner tackles industry challenges across capital supply and demand, policy, and intermediation. The organisation is in the process of establishing a $1 billion Nigerian Wholesale Impact Investment Fund (WIIF), with government backing, to address MSME financing gaps.
To explore these partnership opportunities, please contact: info@impactinvestingh.org Josephine.brown@impactinvestinggh.org iogunfuwa@impactinvestorsfoundation.org
