Convergence II (IFC-45023)

Regions
  • Africa
Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.
Financial Institutions
  • International Finance Corporation (IFC)
International, regional and national development finance institutions. Many of these banks have a public interest mission, such as poverty reduction.
Project Status
Active
Stage of the project cycle. Stages vary by development bank and can include: pending, approval, implementation, and closed or completed.
Bank Risk Rating
FI
Environmental and social categorization assessed by the development bank as a measure of the planned project’s environmental and social impacts. A higher risk rating may require more due diligence to limit or avoid harm to people and the environment. For example, "A" or "B" are risk categories where "A" represents the highest amount of risk. Results will include projects that specifically recorded a rating, all other projects are marked ‘U’ for "Undisclosed."
Voting Date
Apr 15, 2021
Date when project documentation and funding is reviewed by the Board for consideration and approval. Some development banks will state a "board date" or "decision date." When funding approval is obtained, the legal documents are accepted and signed, the implementation phase begins.
Borrower
CONVERGENCE PARTNERS DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE FUND
A public entity (government or state-owned) provided with funds or financial support to manage and/or implement a project.
Sectors
  • Finance
The service or industry focus of the investment. A project can have several sectors.
Investment Type(s)
Equity
The categories of the bank investment: loan, grant, guarantee, technical assistance, advisory services, equity and fund.
Investment Amount (USD)
$ 45.00 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Project Cost (USD)
$ 300.00 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Primary Source

Original disclosure @ IFC website

Updated in EWS Jun 10, 2024

Disclosed by Bank Mar 9, 2021

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Project Description
If provided by the financial institution, the Early Warning System Team writes a short summary describing the purported development objective of the project and project components. Review the complete project documentation for a detailed description.

According to the IFC, the proposed project consists of an equity investment of Convergence Partners Digital Infrastructure Fund, a digital infrastructure investment vehicle focused on sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), seeking for a third party commitments and to comprise two parallel funds in South Africa and Mauritius. The fund’s strategy is to invest in companies operating in the digital technology sector and ICT infrastructure with a geographical focus on Nigeria, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, Tanzania, Mozambique, Botswana.

The Project is expected to result in increased capacity of digital infrastructure, with the potential to improve the quality of digital connectivity and services for individuals and businesses. These outcomes would be achieved by supporting the sharing of broadband and data infrastructure and adding new international connectivity and data center capacity across a number of countries, including some with substantial gaps in digital connectivity. Beyond the Project, this investment has the potential to result in increased competitiveness of the market for digital connectivity and data across the target countries, by creating competitive markets via demonstration and replication channels.

Investment Description
Here you can find a list of individual development financial institutions that finance the project.

According to the IFC the Fund has a total committed capital target size of US$ 250 million, with a US$ 300 million hard cap. IFC’s proposed investment is for up to US$ 25 million in equity, not to exceed 20% of total committed capital

Financial Intermediary
A financial intermediary is a bank or financial institution that receives funds from a development bank. A financial intermediary then lends these funds to their clients (private actors) in the form of loans, bonds, guarantees and equity shares. Financial intermediaries include insurance, pension and equity funds. The direct financial relationship is between the development bank and the financial intermediary.
Private Actors Description
A Private Actor is a non-governmental body or entity that is the borrower or client of a development project, which can include corporations, private equity and banks. This describes the private actors and their roles in relation to the project, when private actor information is disclosed or has been further researched.

According to the IFC, the fund will be managed by Convergence Partners Africa Limited (“CPA”) and advised by Convergence Partners Management Proprietary Limited (“CPM”). Formed in 2006 by four Partners - Andile Ngcaba, Brandon Doyle, Stefan Ferreira and Idan Segal – the Convergence Partners Group, with over US$ 300 million in assets under management, invests in private equity and infrastructure opportunities in technology and digital sectors across sub-Saharan Africa. CPA is being incorporated in Mauritius while CPM is  incorporated in South Africa, and the group has offices in Ebene, Mauritius, Johannesburg, South Africa and Lagos, Nigeria. IFC has invested in Convergence Partner’s previous fund – Convergence Partners Communication Infrastructure Fund.


Contact Information
This section aims to support the local communities and local CSO to get to know which stakeholders are involved in a project with their roles and responsibilities. If available, there may be a complaint office for the respective bank which operates independently to receive and determine violations in policy and practice. Independent Accountability Mechanisms receive and respond to complaints. Most Independent Accountability Mechanisms offer two functions for addressing complaints: dispute resolution and compliance review.

Convergence Partners Africa Ltd.
Yolande Tabo
Investor Relations Principal
+2711 550 5320
yolandet@convergencepartners.com
Postnet 232, Pvt Bag X11, Craighall, 2021, South Africa
https://www.convergencepartners.com/

ACCESS TO INFORMATION

You can submit a request for information disclosure at: https://disclosures.ifc.org/#/inquiries

If you believe that your request for information from IFC has been unreasonably denied, or that this Policy has been interpreted incorrectly, you can submit a complaint at the link above to IFC's Access to Information Policy Advisor, who reports directly to IFC's Executive Vice President.

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF IFC/MIGA

The Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO) is the independent complaint mechanism and fact-finding body for people who believe they are likely to be, or have been, adversely affected by an IFC or MIGA- financed project. If you submit a complaint to the CAO, they may assist you in resolving a dispute with the company and/or investigate to assess whether the IFC is following its own policies and procedures for preventing harm to people or the environment. If you want to submit a complaint electronically, you can email the CAO at CAO@worldbankgroup.org You can learn more about the CAO and how to file a complaint at http://www.cao-ombudsman.org

How it works

How it works