BLUEINVEST AFRICA: Unlocking Investment for the Continent’s Blue Economy

As many African startups seek to build sustainable and healthy businesses around Africa’s vibrant and rich sea source, access to capital and resources remain a hurdle they are yet to cross. BlueInvest Africa; a pan African investment facilitation aims to bridge that gap by providing the resources and platforms to enable these Small and Medium sized Enterprise (SME)’s to pitch their business plan to international investors.

 This European Union backed initiative aims to bridge the gap by connecting sustainable blue economy to investors. With interest growing in West Africa and beyond the initiative is significantly seen as a gateway for ocean focused innovation on the continent.

SME’s are required to be based in Africa, including Ghana and other West African countries to be be able to pitch their product and operations must be linked to Africa even if based elsewhere. In regards to their core mission which is to boost investment and innovation in sustainable technologies for the Blue Economy, this platform actively supports SME’s, startups and scale-ups with an existing product, pilot or market traction.

It is worthy to note that early stage SME’s are not usually competitive and that companies must have a clear link to the blue economy or marine resources. Also in line with their core operating principles, BlueInvest Africa supports companies who have demonstrated commitment to environmental protection and responsible resource use.

BlueInvest Africa holds strong relevance in Africa particularly, Ghana because of our extensive coastlines and fishing communities as it helps fill funding gaps and drives the blue economy growth of Africa. This is to say it facilitates partnerships between African start-ups and investors as well as policy makers which in one way or the other leads to sustainable development growth in the continent.

This platform provides funding from various legitimate sources such the European Investment Bank which is the core backer of this platform as well as Impact investment and Climate funds which are funds aligned with the UN sustainable development goals and many development finance institutions.

In essence, BlueInvest serves as a catalyst to unlock Africa’s under-invested blue economy in which the World Bank notes that while Africa’s coastal and marine resources are extensive, private capital remains limited due to regulatory uncertainty and weak investment pipelines which brings in the BlueInvest platform.

And while European Union (EU) and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) policy analysis acknowledge that BlueInvest plays a catalytic role by improving investment readiness and visibility it is not a substitute for large scale finances. In summary, BlueInvest Africa does not solve the funding gap alone and future success depends on follow-on investment and diligence.