Micro-businesses and ‘informal’ sectors are at the very core of Africa’s economy. From fruit to smartphones, small-scale vendors account for a significant proportion of Africa’s labour force - enabling financing for these businesses is not only a complex undertaking but has vast implications for the African economy and its trajectory. 

Today we spoke with Wayne Hennessy-Barrett, Founder and CEO of 4G Capital, about the deployment of capital amongst micro-businesses and entrepreneurs in Africa. In addition to micro-loans, 4G capital provides enterprise training to enhance the allocation of capital within the businesses it lends to. By utilizing AI to better understand businesses and optimize lending decisions, the company has been able to maintain extraordinarily high collection rates for an otherwise unsecured loan product - atypical for the industry and especially impressive for lenders increasing their book size year on year.

Highlights:

💼 The importance of micro-businesses and the informal economy in Africa 

📱 The use of mobile money to deploy microfinance loans

♀ Empowering female entrepreneurs through better micro-financing 

🧮 Combining lending and financial literacy to optimize lending 

💸 Micro-finance as a more efficient capital deployment mechanism than foreign aid

📊 Diversifying ESG portfolios by deploying capital through micro-financing 

🧠 The use of AI to optimize lending decisions

If you would like to connect with 4G Capital, please email Wayne at whb@4g-capital.com

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