Yesterday, together with Lutz Hethey and Caroline Flohr, we attended the first Regional Africa Forum hosted by the IHK Osnabr\u00fcck \u2013 Emsland \u2013 Grafschaft Bentheim. The event sent a strong signal for dialogue between German companies and African markets\u2014characterized by openness, practical insights, and long-term thinking. <\/p>\n
Our sincere thanks go to Bianca Untied for her confident moderation and for the invitation to this successful inaugural event.<\/p>\n
Particularly valuable were the contributions from our fellow panelists, who have already established their first operations in Africa and openly shared their experiences:<\/p>\n
Agricultural technology & farming:
AMAZONEN-WERKE (represented by Wilfried Koldehoff) and GRIMME (represented by Frank Nordmann)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
Logistics:
Meyer & Meyer (represented by Benedikt Osterheider)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
Energy & decentralized supply: Their reports made one thing clear: African markets offer great opportunities, but they require a deep understanding of local conditions and a willingness to invest for the long term.<\/p>\n An important impulse also came from Claudia Vo\u00df of the Africa Association of German Business. She emphasized that engagement in Africa requires one thing above all: patience. At the same time, she pointed out that in many areas\u2014especially digitalization\u2014the continent is already ahead of Europe. <\/p>\n This perspective aligns perfectly with our approach of patient capital. Sustainable development emerges where long-term thinking meets local innovative strength. Patience does not mean stagnation; rather, it means recognizing that fast-growing, less-saturated markets operate differently from European ones. Africa\u2019s 54 countries each have distinct conditions and market dynamics\u2014which is precisely why partnership-based approaches are essential. <\/p>\n Beyond industrial market opportunities, Africa needs one thing in particular: more venture capital\u2014especially patient capital. Many African start-ups and growth companies are highly innovative and deeply rooted locally. What they often lack, however, is exactly what they need for sustainable growth: time and long-term-oriented capital instead of short-term return expectations. <\/p>\n This is where we come in. With our impact-driven investment approach, we provide patient, purpose-driven capital and close a critical financing gap\u2014exactly at the stage when young companies need to stabilize and scale their solutions. We see ourselves as bridge builders for future industrial hubs on the African continent. <\/p>\n Small and medium-sized enterprises create the majority of jobs in Africa\u2014often without access to capital, structured markets, or growth infrastructure. By combining capital with a strong regional network, non-profit venture capital providers like us make an important contribution: to urgently needed jobs in Africa as well as to the successful market entry of German companies that rely on trustworthy local partners. <\/p>\n Our conviction: We thank all participants for the open exchange and look forward to continuing this important dialogue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Yesterday, together with Lutz Hethey and Caroline Flohr, we attended the first Regional Africa Forum hosted by the IHK Osnabr\u00fcck \u2013 Emsland \u2013 Grafschaft Bentheim. The event sent a strong signal for dialogue between German companies and African markets\u2014characterized by openness, practical insights, and long-term thinking. Our sincere thanks go to Bianca Untied for her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1663,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fair-equity.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fair-equity.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fair-equity.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fair-equity.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fair-equity.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fair-equity.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1844\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fair-equity.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fair-equity.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fair-equity.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fair-equity.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
INENSUS GmbH (represented by Nico Peterschmidt)<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nAfrica, Patience, and Digitalization<\/h3>\n
Why Africa Needs More Venture Capital<\/h3>\n
Shared Value Creation for Africa and Germany<\/h3>\n
When local SMEs grow, stable value chains and future industrial hubs emerge\u2014a foundation from which African and German companies alike benefit.<\/p>\n