Challenges and opportunities for private investment funds in Western Africa's startup ecosystem

Abstract

A number of regional research on the operations of private funds in Africa exist with varying levels of depth and detail. These research focus on the continent's regional hubs-North Africa, West Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, and South Africa. Given the varying economic realities among countries within these hubs, there is a need for more in-depth analysis within those regional entities at the sub-regional or national level. Additionally, the vast majority of those studies concentrate only on later stage investment funds. There is a gap in observations, analysis, and development of frameworks for early stage investment funds to successfully invest in this part of the world. The present work aims to study the challenges and opportunities for private funds, with a focus on early-stage investment funds that currently invest or wish to invest in Western-African countries at both sub-regional and national level.