Rwanda corporate finance and advisory firm, Gahigiro Capital, announced today that it has facilitated a $3 million dollars term loan for Jali Finance. The capital was provided by a US-based impact asset manager and marks the firm second investment on the African continent.
Jali Finance specializes in providing motorcycles on a lease-to-own model to individuals, with a focus on creating jobs for Rwanda’s youth population. The loan will aid the growth and expansion of the company, helping to address the significant credit gap for MSMEs and startups in Africa, as reported by the World Bank, the yearly MSME credit gap across sub-Saharan Africa amounts to more than USD 331 billion, with a gap of USD 37 billion in East Africa alone.
“We are proud to have facilitated this transaction, which solidifies our partnership with Jali Finance and contributes signficantly to a growing company that is creating employment and wealth creation opportunities for Rwandans,” said Michael Shema, Founder and Managing Director of Gahigiro Capital. Access to capital remains one of the major challenges for MSMEs and startups in Africa. “This transaction also aligns with one of Gahigiro Capital’s core values of facilitating Africa’s private sector development in the green economy which in turn contributes to the economic growth of the continent and is in line with Rwanda’s carbon neutral goals,” added Shema.
According to the CEO of Jali Finance, this transaction is in line with the company’s ongoing mission of designing financial products to create thousands of jobs for Rwanda’s youths. “This facility is the latest step in Jali Finance’s journey of facilitating wealth creation and providing employment opportunities to individuals in Rwanda. Gahigiro Capital supported us through this entire raise process, and through their expertise and deep investor network allowed us to solve one of our long-standing growth impediments in terms of access to capital. We are thankful for the value Gahigiro Capital was able to add to our business and look forward to doing more work with them in the future!” said Felix Nkundimana, the CEO of Jali Finance.