The Africa Resilience Investment Accelerator (ARIA) has won the prestigious ‘Ecosystem Enabler Award’ at the Annual AVCA Conference Awards, held this week in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The award recognises organisations ‘advocating for private capital in Africa and driving impactful engagement’.
ARIA was set up by British International Investment and the Dutch Entrepreneurial Development Bank (FMO), with the aim to bring together investors to unlock investments and build investment ecosystems in frontier African markets. It currently focuses on Sierra Leone, Liberia, DRC, Ethiopia and Benin.
The distribution of development capital in the African continent is unequal, with these frontier markets lacking the capital they need. ARIA aims to challenge misperceptions about the lack of investment opportunities and equip investors with market knowledge and resources to better serve these markets.
Whilst still in its early days, ARIA already has a track record of delivering concrete results in terms of changing perceptions, influencing strategies, helping increase investment and brokering partnerships among ecosystem actors.
