6 ms·

So after reading Factfulness by Hans Rosling and family I'm really interested in investing in African companies. Ideally it would be through index funds. I got

So after reading Factfulness by Hans Rosling and family I'm really interested in investing in African companies. Ideally it would be through index funds. I got as far as finding ABSA as my go to online broker, but couldn't find any indexes to research (just a bunch of broken links) Would anybody have any resources or direction to point me to?

overcast 8y ago
Vanguard Emerging Markets? Or these? https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/011316/afk-eza-gaf-3-best-africa-etfs-2016.asp https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/011316/afk-e...
jeffreyrogers 8y ago
What is their financial system like? My guess is not very good. I think most of the gains are going to go to private investors, businesses, and other countries that can afford to invest in large projects.
- anubisresources 8y ago
  Financial system varies broadly country to country, but there are virtually no publicly traded African companies. If you wish to invest you need to find private companies willing to take on an investor
  - jeffreyrogers 8y ago
    Not sure why you're being downvoted. I think what you're saying is correct.
    - icebraining 8y ago
      The Johannesburg stock exchange alone has about 400 companies listed, so "virtually none" seems a bit hyperbolic.
      - jeffreyrogers 8y ago
        Sure, but outside of South Africa I believe what the OP is saying is true. In any case, better to correct him than downvote him without an explanation. I expect you would find that the biggest companies in most of Africa are either state owned mining and oil companies or western companies operating in Africa. I don't think they have many important publicly traded companies because their financial systems aren't well developed.
- gandreani 8y ago
  Obviously not the same standards as NYSE or similar exchanges, but I found this link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_African_stock_exchanges https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_African_stock_exchange... The three big ones there actually have a respectable amount of listings (Egypt 833, South Africa 402, Nigeria 223)
- ejanus 8y ago
  Is it not the in other countries? No free Dollars anywhere
  - jeffreyrogers 8y ago
    At least in the US you can invest in a car company or a mining company for example. In Africa the companies that do anything important are either state owned or foreign companies for the most part (as far as I know).
    - ejanus 8y ago
      MTN is not foreign owned. Glo is not foreign owned , Dangote , GTbank , M-net , and many others . Search ft market ..and country of your choice
anubisresources 8y ago
There are virtually no publicly traded African companies. There are companies like glencore that have operations here, but they’re still European or Asian companies. If you’re looking to invest in African companies you have to put time in on the ground to find private companies suitable for investment.
- MusaTheRedGuard 8y ago
  That's just not true. A more accurate statement would be there are very few African companies listed on American stock exchanges. They are still listed in their home country's exchanges
  - anubisresources 8y ago
    The daily trade volume on the Ugandan exchange is ~$18,000. Companies may be “listed”, but good luck actually buying any stock
    - MusaTheRedGuard 8y ago
      Look at the Nigerian stock exchange or the South African stock exchange or the Morrocan Stock exchange. Obviously financial infrastructure varies a lot from country to country
    - sangnoir 8y ago
      You're shifting goalposts.
  - ejanus 8y ago
    A lot of African owned companies are in London stock market and debts market
- ejanus 8y ago
  We have viable stock markets across the continent, remember Nasper of South Africa, Nigerian Banks , Dangote cement , and thousands of others.
- 8y ago
ejanus 8y ago
Search for stanbic bank south Africa
sah2ed 8y ago
You could start with reading Africa-focused capital market news: http://www.africancapitalmarketsnews.com/ http://www.africancapitalmarketsnews.com/ There's a Ryan Hoover (not the Product Hunt founder) that blogs about how to open a brokerage account as a foreigner in order to buy stocks in different countries: https://investinginafrica.net/about/ https://investinginafrica.net/about/
michaelscott 8y ago
As an African, I can tell you the biggest issue for investment on the continent is governmental leadership. The incumbent governments tend to hold a large amount of unilateral legal power and generally don't wield it well when it comes to economics (exceptions to this would be a lot of legislation from Kigame in Rwanda, and Mauritius). Assuming this was fixed, though, I would recommend looking into infrastructure and technology products and services, especially those that are homegrown. These are what most countries need the most and the potential for their growth would be tremendous given the continent's population size.
- kazen44 8y ago
  > Assuming this was fixed, though, I would recommend looking into infrastructure and technology products and services, especially those that are homegrown. These are what most countries need the most and the potential for their growth would be tremendous given the continent's population size. infrastructure in africa is weird though, most of it goes from the resource rich lands to some port for export. There is very little infrastructure between african nations in comparison, which hurts inter-african trade a lot, because it usually results in exporting to other countries being cheaper and using the resources to grow the trade between african nations. Having an internal market (like the EU common market) allows for massive growth of the economies of different nations, it's a shame infrastructure for it does not exist (yet).
  - michaelscott 8y ago
    Absolutely. There is an African Union (AU), but it is a largely toothless organisation in practice and there is little real collaboration between nations on the continent. Again, it comes to leadership. Rwanda, as an example, has great business legislation but being a small, landlocked country it will be reliant on good legislation from its neighbours too in order to really blossom, and sadly this is largely missing.
  - mh400 8y ago
    Totally agree that technology products/services have significant role to play in Africa, especially as we have leapfrogged lines and gone direct to mobile. I think the key point as you highlighted is is that its is homegrown - it took me a while to unlearn/adjust my approach when introducing data-focused products to in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
blanderman 8y ago
https://kiva.org https://kiva.org lets you invest in local people by providing microlending services, but you aren't going to make a return on your investment if that's your motivation.
- _emacsomancer_ 8y ago
  Though Ethiopia doesn't seem to be one of the countries which currently has loan options at kiva.
  - singularity2001 8y ago
    @kiva: why not?
    - blanderman 8y ago
      New loans get posted periodically. Some countries have more active microlending communities than others.
mh400 8y ago
I work with both domestic and foreign private companies in Ethiopia and the main vehicle to invest here is via equity participation (ex. private equity investments - firms such as KKR, Norfund, Catalyst)) or strategic joint ventures with multinationals. The capital markets are still quite nascent across Africa ( Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria leading the way) so index funds will be challenging. Check out Barclays Africa, Atlas Mara,Standard Bank, Eco Bank, and United Bank to see if they offer options via funds.If you are interested in investing in Ethiopia, happy to discuss further(Shameless plug: Our company provides investment data to support local companies, global investors and policy makers make informed decisions abut Ethiopia's business landscape. I conducted on the ground research and found the lack of data that is easily accessible and informative is a significant problem which hinders the rate of investmentactivity here. Today, we engage with about 450+ local companies across various sectors :)

overcast 8y ago

Vanguard Emerging Markets? Or these? https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/011316/afk-eza-gaf-3-best-africa-etfs-2016.asp https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/011316/afk-e...

jeffreyrogers 8y ago

What is their financial system like? My guess is not very good. I think most of the gains are going to go to private investors, businesses, and other countries that can afford to invest in large projects.

anubisresources 8y ago
Financial system varies broadly country to country, but there are virtually no publicly traded African companies. If you wish to invest you need to find private companies willing to take on an investor
- jeffreyrogers 8y ago
  Not sure why you're being downvoted. I think what you're saying is correct.
  - icebraining 8y ago
    The Johannesburg stock exchange alone has about 400 companies listed, so "virtually none" seems a bit hyperbolic.
    - jeffreyrogers 8y ago
      Sure, but outside of South Africa I believe what the OP is saying is true. In any case, better to correct him than downvote him without an explanation. I expect you would find that the biggest companies in most of Africa are either state owned mining and oil companies or western companies operating in Africa. I don't think they have many important publicly traded companies because their financial systems aren't well developed.
gandreani 8y ago
Obviously not the same standards as NYSE or similar exchanges, but I found this link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_African_stock_exchanges https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_African_stock_exchange... The three big ones there actually have a respectable amount of listings (Egypt 833, South Africa 402, Nigeria 223)
ejanus 8y ago
Is it not the in other countries? No free Dollars anywhere
- jeffreyrogers 8y ago
  At least in the US you can invest in a car company or a mining company for example. In Africa the companies that do anything important are either state owned or foreign companies for the most part (as far as I know).
  - ejanus 8y ago
    MTN is not foreign owned. Glo is not foreign owned , Dangote , GTbank , M-net , and many others . Search ft market ..and country of your choice

anubisresources 8y ago

There are virtually no publicly traded African companies. There are companies like glencore that have operations here, but they’re still European or Asian companies. If you’re looking to invest in African companies you have to put time in on the ground to find private companies suitable for investment.

MusaTheRedGuard 8y ago
That's just not true. A more accurate statement would be there are very few African companies listed on American stock exchanges. They are still listed in their home country's exchanges
- anubisresources 8y ago
  The daily trade volume on the Ugandan exchange is ~$18,000. Companies may be “listed”, but good luck actually buying any stock
  - MusaTheRedGuard 8y ago
    Look at the Nigerian stock exchange or the South African stock exchange or the Morrocan Stock exchange. Obviously financial infrastructure varies a lot from country to country
  - sangnoir 8y ago
    You're shifting goalposts.
- ejanus 8y ago
  A lot of African owned companies are in London stock market and debts market
ejanus 8y ago
We have viable stock markets across the continent, remember Nasper of South Africa, Nigerian Banks , Dangote cement , and thousands of others.
8y ago

ejanus 8y ago

Search for stanbic bank south Africa

sah2ed 8y ago

You could start with reading Africa-focused capital market news: http://www.africancapitalmarketsnews.com/ http://www.africancapitalmarketsnews.com/ There's a Ryan Hoover (not the Product Hunt founder) that blogs about how to open a brokerage account as a foreigner in order to buy stocks in different countries: https://investinginafrica.net/about/ https://investinginafrica.net/about/

michaelscott 8y ago

As an African, I can tell you the biggest issue for investment on the continent is governmental leadership. The incumbent governments tend to hold a large amount of unilateral legal power and generally don't wield it well when it comes to economics (exceptions to this would be a lot of legislation from Kigame in Rwanda, and Mauritius). Assuming this was fixed, though, I would recommend looking into infrastructure and technology products and services, especially those that are homegrown. These are what most countries need the most and the potential for their growth would be tremendous given the continent's population size.

kazen44 8y ago
> Assuming this was fixed, though, I would recommend looking into infrastructure and technology products and services, especially those that are homegrown. These are what most countries need the most and the potential for their growth would be tremendous given the continent's population size. infrastructure in africa is weird though, most of it goes from the resource rich lands to some port for export. There is very little infrastructure between african nations in comparison, which hurts inter-african trade a lot, because it usually results in exporting to other countries being cheaper and using the resources to grow the trade between african nations. Having an internal market (like the EU common market) allows for massive growth of the economies of different nations, it's a shame infrastructure for it does not exist (yet).
- michaelscott 8y ago
  Absolutely. There is an African Union (AU), but it is a largely toothless organisation in practice and there is little real collaboration between nations on the continent. Again, it comes to leadership. Rwanda, as an example, has great business legislation but being a small, landlocked country it will be reliant on good legislation from its neighbours too in order to really blossom, and sadly this is largely missing.
- mh400 8y ago
  Totally agree that technology products/services have significant role to play in Africa, especially as we have leapfrogged lines and gone direct to mobile. I think the key point as you highlighted is is that its is homegrown - it took me a while to unlearn/adjust my approach when introducing data-focused products to in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

blanderman 8y ago

https://kiva.org https://kiva.org lets you invest in local people by providing microlending services, but you aren't going to make a return on your investment if that's your motivation.

_emacsomancer_ 8y ago
Though Ethiopia doesn't seem to be one of the countries which currently has loan options at kiva.
- singularity2001 8y ago
  @kiva: why not?
  - blanderman 8y ago
    New loans get posted periodically. Some countries have more active microlending communities than others.

mh400 8y ago

I work with both domestic and foreign private companies in Ethiopia and the main vehicle to invest here is via equity participation (ex. private equity investments - firms such as KKR, Norfund, Catalyst)) or strategic joint ventures with multinationals. The capital markets are still quite nascent across Africa ( Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria leading the way) so index funds will be challenging. Check out Barclays Africa, Atlas Mara,Standard Bank, Eco Bank, and United Bank to see if they offer options via funds.If you are interested in investing in Ethiopia, happy to discuss further(Shameless plug: Our company provides investment data to support local companies, global investors and policy makers make informed decisions abut Ethiopia's business landscape. I conducted on the ground research and found the lack of data that is easily accessible and informative is a significant problem which hinders the rate of investmentactivity here. Today, we engage with about 450+ local companies across various sectors :)