African entrepreneurs and businesses face many challenges in getting their operations off the ground. Key amongst this is access to tailored financial services, including access to capital and access to business advisory tools. Existing capital providers, including Development Finance Institutions, Banks, Private Equity Funds and Venture Capital Funds, are often quite rigid in their requirements and do not lend themselves to providing the necessary assistance to entrepreneurs and businesses that would allow them to meet such requirements. As a result, these entrepreneurs and business are not able get to a point of being fundable by these institutions. Most interventions by government and the private sector have failed to recognize the prohibitive costs of existing financial services products for most Africans, be they individual consumers or entrepreneurs. Tafari Capital intends to launch a banking platform that puts this African consumer at the centre of the value proposition and design products that address the customer needs. This journey will start with an agency-banking model that will graduate into a full service commercial banking model as it gathers scale.

Tafari Capital will identify and co-invest with other like-minded African partners to create a fully inclusive banking group for African consumers, entrepreneurs and businesses. The bank will help to create and grow African capital and establish a cadre of African businesses to support the growth of our economy. The bank will provide access to appropriately structured and priced funding – ensuring the development and growth of African owned businesses by allowing them to:

• Create a visible track record of their businesses;
• Transact amongst themselves in a trusted ecosystem, the electronic mall;
• Raise capital from other African people, African companies and supportive institutions; and
• Support transactions and deals that will raise the equity of African people.