Key data

Our portfolio

Making a financial return means we can recycle the money into new investments, to create jobs and pay taxes beyond our involvement. In 2023, we made £1.31 billion of gross new commitments and we increased our portfolio to £7.3 billion ($9.2 billion).

Our portfolio size

2019

£4736m

2020

£5222m

2021

£6011m

2022

£6888m

2023

£7319m

How we invest in regions

The countries we invest in each have unique opportunities and needs. We invest in countries in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. At the end of 2023, we had direct and indirect investments in more than 1,500 businesses – including 812 in Africa and 730 in our target countries in Asia.

Top 10 countries we are invested in

India

26%

Egypt

8%

Nigeria

8%

South Africa

7%

Kenya

5%

Morocco

4%

Bangladesh

4%

Zimbabwe

3%

Uganda

2%

Ethiopia

2%

Regional breakdown of our portfolio

Africa

60%

Asia

34%

Rest of world

5%

Regional breakdown of our 2023 commitments

Africa

61%

Asia

20%

Other (This includes investments that span both Africa and Asia, as well as investment in other countries beyond these regions)

19%

Country breakdown of our portfolio

Country 2023 closing valuation ($m) Number of companies
India 2,379.5 567
Egypt 707.5 70
Nigeria 699.5 120
South Africa 603.8 67
Kenya 425.7 111
Morocco 327.2 36
Bangladesh 325.3 18
Zimbabwe 288.5 19
Uganda 194.9 37
Ethiopia 178.0 20
Pakistan 173.1 46
Ghana 130.3 37
Cameroon 112.6 11
Senegal 110.2 13
Cote d’Ivoire 107.8 23
Zambia 86.8 13
Nepal 79.4 10
Gabon 68.7 6
Tanzania 64.8 23
Mauritius 56.9 12
Sri Lanka 39.0 4
Mozambique 32.5 7
China 29.7 29
Tunisia 28.5 13
Malawi 26.0 8
Cambodia 25.0 6
Democratic Republic of Congo 22.2 20
Mali 21.8 6
Myanmar 21.7 11
Vietnam 20.4 11
Burkina Faso 19.3 4
Madagascar 15.9 7
Sierra Leone 14.8 13
Singapore 13.3 4
Namibia 9.5 4
Philippines 2.5 6
Rwanda 0.7 6
Other countries with 3 or less investments 206.3

 

How we invest in sectors

A focus on, and expertise in, key economic sectors is central to our approach to making successful investments. We prioritise those sectors that facilitate development and need our capital the most. Our priority sectors contribute towards many of the SDGs. These sectors range from investing in the power infrastructure that will provide people with better access to electricity; to sectors that are powerful job creators or sectors that are critical for improving access to basic goods and services; to investing in financial institutions that direct capital to the individuals and enterprises that need it.

Sector breakdown of our portfolio

Financial services

30%

Infrastructure

29%

Technology and telecoms

10%

Health

9%

Food and agriculture

8%

Manufacturing

7%

Other

4%

Construction and real estate

3%

Education

1%

Sector breakdown of our 2023 commitments

Financial services

46%

Infrastructure

33%

Food and agriculture

10%

Other

6%

Technology and telecoms

2%

Manufacturing

1%

Education

1%

Health

1%

Construction and real estate

0%

How we invest in different product types

We provide the flexible long-term investment that many businesses in developing countries need to grow. This capital is provided in different ways, through direct equity, intermediated equity, debt and trade finance.

Product breakdown of our portfolio

Direct equity

35%

Intermediated equity

33%

Debt

30%

Guarantees

1%

Product breakdown of our 2023 commitments

Intermediated equity

39%

Debt

34%

Direct equity

20%

Guarantees

8%

The impact of our investments

In 2023, our portfolio of businesses in Africa and Asia provided direct jobs for over 1 million people (in full-time equivalents). Of these workers, 84,619 were new hires.

Direct jobs supported at the start of the year by our investee companies

2019

833,660

2020

918,040

2021

916,050

2022

904,110

2023

997,751

Additional jobs supported at end of year

2019

42,130

2020

33,890

2021

22,310

2022

54,090

2023

84,619

Direct jobs supported by our investee companies by country in 2023

Country Jobs
India 475,627
Egypt 91,414
Nigeria 62,968
Morocco 49,772
Pakistan 45,342
South Africa 44,737
Kenya 41,209
Ethiopia 34,296
Africa (Global/Not country specific) 34,180
Bangladesh 24,735
Tanzania 19,251
Ghana 16,948
Global 15,345
Tunisia 13,926
Zimbabwe 13,505
Zambia 12,899
Nepal 11,416
East Africa (Not country specific) 11,213
Cote d’Ivoire 9,002
Cameroon 8,730
Myanmar 6,983
Mauritius 5,439
West Africa (Not country specific) 4,647
Uganda 4,060
Sri Lanka 3,433
Angola 2,900
Senegal 2,362
Somalia 2,015
Burkina Faso 1,900
Democratic Republic of Congo 1,705
Namibia 1,636
Mozambique 1,439
Algeria 1,301
Mali 1,169
Sierra Leone 932
Malawi 753
Madagascar 657
Rwanda 652
Eswatini 627
Gabon 490
Cape Verde 215
Jordan 177
Burundi 162
Cambodia 81
Chad 65
Niger 37
Guinea 20

Direct jobs supported by our investee companies by region in 2023

Africa

46%

Asia

52%

Rest of world

1%

Direct jobs supported by our investee companies by sector

Financial services

36.7%

Food and agriculture

15.4%

Health

10.5%

Technology and telecoms

10.3%

Manufacturing

10%

Consumer services

9.3%

Infrastructure

5.2%

Education

1.8%

Construction and real estate

0.5%

Other

0.2%

Direct jobs supported by our investee companies by gender in 2023

Women

26%

Men

74%

Private sector capital our investments have helped mobilise: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Method

2019

$876m

2020

$555m

2021

$2064m

2022

$1376m

2023

$929m

Private sector capital our investments have helped mobilise: Multilateral Development Bank Method

2019

$917m

2020

$559m

2021

$2085m

2022

$1434m

2023

$938m

Taxes paid by our investee companies

2019

$3.31bn

2020

$2.22bn

2021

$1.51bn

2022

$1.79bn

2023

$2.42bn

Taxes paid by our investee companies by sector

Financial services

66.5%

Infrastructure

11.11%

Health

6.87%

Technology and telecoms

5.37%

Food and agriculture

5.06%

Manufacturing

2.57%

Consumer services

1.84%

Education

0.65%

Construction and real estate

0.01%

Taxes paid by our investee companies by country in 2023

Country Taxes paid $
Africa (Non Country Specific) 62,635,347
Algeria 12,706,234
Bangladesh 69,165
Burkina Faso 768,315
Cambodia 220,811
Cameroon 34,780,623
Cape Verde 1,630,000
Cote d’Ivoire 32,709,227
Democratic Republic of Congo 106,380
East Africa (Non Country Specific) 399,488
Egypt 609,634,311
Ghana 14,800,327
Global 11,814,726
India 882,155,891
Kenya 91,615,820
Malawi 690,835
Mali 2,434,784
Morocco 105,027,906
Myanmar 6,326,085
Nepal 54,444,221
Niger 1,924
Nigeria 230,327,459
Pakistan 1,363,636
Senegal 54,816,131
South Africa 39,721,410
Tanzania 44,267,177
Tunisia 18,315,932
Uganda 26,001,402
West Africa (Non Country Specific) 2,448,409
Zambia 47,588,382
Zimbabwe 38,941,610

 

Customers reached by our financial services portfolio

2019

93m

2020

124m

2021

132m

2022

121m

2023

135m

Loans supplied by our investee companies

2019

$89.7bn

2020

$108.7bn

2021

$99.8bn

2022

$86.1bn

2023

$105.8bn

Gigawatt hours of electricity produced by our investments

2019

56,955

2020

55,352

2021

58,040

2022

49,873

2023

59,231

Farmers reached by our investee companies

2019

1,843,210

2020

1,514,540

2021

1,878,810

2022

9,994,850

2023

13,165,320

Patients served by our investee companies

2019

12,328,280

2020

14,453,620

2021

11,647,620

2022

12,898,077

2023

12,232,760

Learners reached by our investee companies

2019

477,500

2020

802,290

2021

1,782,810

2022

3,046,090

2023

4,254,050

Supporting countries most in need

As part of our Impact Score, we rank all the countries we invest in from ‘Alpha’ to ‘Delta’ according to their GDP per capita, fragility measures and poverty gap. Alpha is the most in need and Delta the least. A detailed breakdown of our approach to country segmentation is available in our Impact Score.

Commitments to countries most in need in 2023

Alpha

£286.93m

Beta

£365.45m

Gamma

£522.1m

Delta

£114.85m

Non-BII geography (Ukraine)

£19.8m

Supporting the Sustainable Development Goals

For each investment we make, we link the expected impact of the investment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The chart shows the value of our 2023 commitments aimed at addressing each Sustainable Development Goal. Please note that some individual commitments target multiple SDGs, which means the sum of the commitments shown on this chart is greater than our total 2023 commitment figure. Click here to see a larger version of the chart below.

Find out more

For further information on our investments, please click here.

To see our IATI data, please click here.

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