Venture Capital Trust Fund signs MoU with GIMPA to establish Centre
Venture Capital Trust Fund (VCTF) on Wednesday signed a Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) with the Ghana Institute for Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) to establish a Centre for Impact Investing in the country.
The partnership was to establish a collaborative framework for the promotion of impact investing as a means of developing a business community of social enterprises to deal with the social and environmental challenges confronting the country.
The signing of the MOU will combine a firm mix of expertise in investments and social-economic development, policy analysis and advocacy, design and implement activities and basic infrastructure necessary for impact investing to thrive in the country.
Mr Daniel Doku, Chief Executive Officer of VCTF said the collaborative efforts is expected to culminate into the establishment of GIMPA Centre for Impact Investing, which is expected to be seeded by the VCTF using grant received from the Rockefeller Foundation in 2012.
Mr Doku said Venture Capital Trust Fund with support from the Rockefeller Foundation commissioned a comprehensive study of the impact investing policy environment in the country in 2012, and that, it is expected that the outcome of the report will serve as a useful guide for the new Centre expected to be launched by the end of June 2013.
He said the impact investments are investments intended to create positive impact beyond financial return and that it is estimated that the impact investment market offers the potential over the next ten years for invested 400 billion dollars to 1 trillion dollars and profit of about 183 billion dollars to 668 billion dollars.
Mr Doku said it hoped that the partnership will catalyze a positive transformation of the country’s entrepreneurial ecosystem where business owners and managers look beyond financial returns to deliver solutions that reflect positively on the communities within which it operates.
Professor Franklyn Kwabena Manu, Rector of GIMPA expressed satisfaction for the partnership, adding that, it is about time the academic industry steps out of the classroom and use its knowledge and expertise to help develop the country.
“The GIMPA centre for Impact Investing is the beginning of one of the many active channels that would serve as a beam of light to assist the business community, government and individuals in identifying projects that can provide measurable social as well as financial returns” he added.
Venture Capital Trust Fund is a government of Ghana backed private equity initiative established by the enactment of the VCTF Act 2004 (Act 680), which provides long-term funds as well as technical support to Small and Medium Enterprises to expand their businesses.
GIMPA was established in 1961 as a joint Ghana government and United Nations Special Fund Project and transformed to a comprehensive tertiary institution which offers programmes in leadership, management, public and business administration, law and technology for both the public and private sectors.
Source: GNA