Sir Bob Geldof's 8 Miles African private equity fund has finalized its first investment. It has backed up a fledgeling company that builds commodity exchanges across Africa as well as improve food security.
The US$200 million fund of the rock legend was joined in by Morgan Stanley and the International Financial Corporation in setting up US$5 million in start up mony for eleni LLC. The company was co-founded by the former head of the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange, Eleni Gabre-Madhin.
eleni was established to level the playing field for African farmers in need of greater price transparency to counteract the more powerful and better equipped market players.
She told Reuters during an interview at the World Economic Forum on Africa, "We have closed (an agreement) this week with the 8 Miles fund. It's time the world looked to our markets as a reference. There's no reason why we shouldn't have a West African cotton index that the world refers to, or an east African cofee index or African sesame seed index."
She added that Africa is at the precipice of an agricultural revolution, with 70% of arable land uncultivated and only one fourth of its yield potential achieved each year.
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