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Actis' Nkosana Moyo: a question of emotional ownership; Nkosana Moyo, erstwhile Zimbabwe's minister for industry and trade and now head of the Africa region for Actis, talks about Africa's economic options and argues that unless Africa's institutions connect culturally and emotionally with the people, they are bound to fail.

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AFRICAN BANKER: WHAT is the relationship between Actis and CDC?

NKOSANA MOYO: Actis is a manager of long term funds in emerging markets, and Africa is one of our key markets. The linkage between Actis and CDC goes back to 1997 when the British Prime Minister Tony Blair first expressed the desire to privatise CDC as it was then. A few years down the line, CDC was reorganised into two organisations: The new CDC as the owner, if you like, of the balance sheet and a new organisation, Actis, which became the fund manager initially for CDC's money.

So, two organisations were borne out of CDC and Actis inherited the investment professionals in all overseas offices.

In short, CDC gives us their money on an agreed contractual basis and we manage that money: we go and find the projects to invest in and hopefully grow the money, get a return on it and then we give the money back to CDC and our other investors. In terms of private equity language, CDC is a limited partner and Actis is general partner.

WHAT SECTORS ARE most attractive to you in terms of investments in Africa?

We manage general funds, but we've got sectors which we've identified as being worthy of special attention. Those sectors include natural resources--oil and gas, mining; information and communication technologies and the financial services' sector.

ARE YOU INTERESTED in start-up ventures or do you always go into established businesses?

We generally do not invest in start-up ventures. I say we don't normally but it's not a question of never, ever. We will consider exceptionally compelling situations.

ARE THERE ANY examples of a start-up that you might have been involved in recently?

Not start-up as such, but at an early stage. A good example is the celebrated Celtel telecoms company. We invested in Celtel at an early stage. We also invested in another telecoms operation in Nigeria, Starcoms, also at an early stage. In the mining sector, we also tend to go in at early stages--exploration and resource proving ahead of mine development.

HOW DO RETURNS in Africa compare with returns from other markets?

Your question takes me back to an issue which I need to explain. The rationale for the semi privatisation of...

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