In Africa, between 2012 and 2017, 953 private equity (PE) deals – worth US$24.4 billion – were reported. The main sector focuses for PE investments in 2017 were consumer discretionary and IT; others included financial services, education, healthcare and agribusiness. Although the total value of African PE fundraising decreased from US$3.4 billion in 2016 to US$2.3 billion in 2017, this was largely due to the fact that a number of big funds had achieved final closes in prior years.

Read Ogechi Onuoha’s article on private equity as a catalyst for growth in Africa below: