How the UK is investing in African development

British International Investments (BII), the UK's official development finance agency, was the first organisation of its kind when it was founded in 1948. It remains at the forefront of international development finance, particularly for Africa, where it deploys 70% of its $2-$4 billion of new capital every year. CEO Nick O'Donohoe is a pioneer of impact investing, coming to BII following stints in investment banking and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and having co-founded Big Society Capital, the world's first social investment bank. He explains how BII fits into the UK's foreign policy in the context of Brexit and a shrinking foreign aid and development budget. He discusses priorities, illustrating how infrastructure and technology are key to enabling Africa to exploit its enormous entrepreneurial potential. He also touches on climate change, outlining how BII's commitment to achieving net zero across its both portfolio and transactions will drive its engagement with the continent's clean energy transition. The podcast takes a philosophical turn, with Nick and Desné tackling the big questions of development, finance and investment. What does it mean to be developed? What is the 'right' kind of private sector? Must investments be large to be transformational? They finish with a discussion of social impact, gender and green bonds. Nick sees huge progress in this space. Recalling the 1990s, and even into the 2000s, he argues that there has been an explosion in awareness of how investment can materially change development outcomes. Read more The next ten years of impact investment Africa's changing role in UK foreign policy What do we really know about Africa's informal economy? Explaining green bonds Credits Host and executive producer: Dr Desné Masie Co-producer: Peter Doerrie Research: Angus Chapman Digital Editor: Charles Dietz Design: Jason Venkatasamy Music: Corporate Uplifting Chill by MusicLFiles Licence: http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/

You can listen to How the UK is investing in African development online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

How the UK is investing in African development is an episode from The African Business Podcast by Stuart West.

This episode is 51:20 long.

This episode was published on Oct 12, 2022.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from The African Business Podcast when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.