Enterprise and supplier development around major investments
Infrastructure and mining · Multiple African markets
Designed and managed technical assistance linked to major investments, covering local supplier development, enterprise support, value chains, and institutional capacity. The work helped connect investment activity with opportunities for local businesses.
The situation
Large infrastructure and mining investments create substantial economic activity, and local firms are often unable to capture it. They cannot meet the standards, reporting, or working capital demands of selling to a major investor, so the spending leaves the country. A portfolio of technical assistance was attached to live and prospective investments across energy, mining, telecommunications, and transport to change that.
Our role
Our senior team helped develop and manage the portfolio: 11 active projects with a budget of approximately $30 million, alongside more than 25 linked investment opportunities.
The work
The work covered portfolio planning, project development, coordination with investment clients, development finance teams, donors, and public institutions, results monitoring, and the design or oversight of local economic development activities. In one market, our team built the capability of local SMEs to supply two major mining investments. Elsewhere, a supply chain finance platform registered more than 1,000 local suppliers, and we supported a chamber of commerce and its members on investment readiness, route to market, and women-owned businesses.
Across other markets, the portfolio helped public authorities manage investment-related revenues, supported local business development providers and start-up hubs, trained trainers and officials, and established results baselines.
What changed
The portfolio showed how technical assistance extends the development value of an investment when it is attached to real commercial relationships, capable local institutions, and accountable delivery. The strongest results came where the assistance addressed a defined constraint, had an institutional owner, and was connected to an investment that could sustain it.
Related service
This assignment sits within program design and implementation, and within the enterprise and supplier development work that connects finance and investment to local business growth.
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