edwinSilk Invest backs consumer goods companies through its African Food Fund. Tell us more about the fund’s investment focus.
We wanted to have a focused strategy for our first private equity fund (the African Food Fund) and looked for one sector that would allow us to have maximum impact and economies of scale and scope with a pan-African strategy. This led us to fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG). We selected six focus countries across Africa: Kenya and Ethiopia in East Africa; Nigeria and Ghana in West Africa; and Morocco and Egypt in North Africa. We chose these countries because we had team members who knew those markets well and also because these countries represent close to 40% of Africa’s population.