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External financing of African entrepreneurship is a subject that deeply divides development actors. Between those who see impact funds as a historic opportunity and those who see it as a new form of dependency, this dilemma crystallizes issues that go far beyond accounting.
The impact fund trap
Impact funds have an attractive rhetoric: doing good while making profit. But contractual conditions — majority of capital, redemption clauses, growth targets imposed — often reproduce conventional economic domination relationships under altruistic packaging. When a fund based in Paris owns 60% of a Malian cooperative, who really decides on agricultural priorities?
Growth as a Questioned Purpose
Growth obsession — triple the area, mechanize, export — meets the criteria of investor success, not necessarily those of farmers. A cooperative that sustainably improves the incomes of 80 families without going into debt or losing its autonomy is perhaps more valuable than an agricultural enterprise that triples in size but whose profits go to Paris.
Alternatives to external capital
Models such as self-managed co-operatives, African sovereign funds, diaspora investors, or community bonds raise capital without sacrificing control. These alternatives exist — They are less well known because they are less publicized than international large funds.
Accepting an investment is always a choice between speed and sovereignty. The question is which one you really need.
