The Rockefeller Foundation released a report on Impact Investment, in collaboration with financier JP Morgan, but its president is touting African ventures. In the East African, Judith Rodin said that investors want returns and in East Africa, SMEs need to mature. She said, “[SMEs] will take off if they’re not too small. Their growth should be encouraged through different kinds of investment.”
Rodin noted that while many think that impact investors take advantage of economically-challenged countries for profit, social and environmental returns were not just for the “poor.” She said, “Impact investing can be done in alternative energy, for instance. This is a misunderstanding because impact investors usually intend and explicitly want to do good, but also want to make a profit.” Rodin said that the growing middle class in the continent represented a “robust growth opportunity.”
The foundation also partnered with the Global Alliance for Banking on Values, giving a grant of $200,000 to support the development of a new fund which could “bring values-driven banking to the mainstream.” The fund will work to help implement sustainable banking measures, helping to fund more environmental projects.
Antony Bugg-Levine, Managing Director at the Rockefeller Foundation, said: “By funding research to support the development of a new sustainable banking fund, the Rockefeller Foundation aims to grow a more sustainable financial industry; one that is capable of changing the lives of millions of people and safeguarding the environment they depend on.”
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