The IFC, the Arab Fund for Social and Economic Development, the Arab Investment Company and the Arab Petroleum Investment Corporation are investing $125 million in the IFC's MENA Fund. The fund will focus primarily providing private companies in the infrastructure, financial services and manufacturing sectors with growth equity capital in a bid to spur employment and economic development in the region.

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Zoscales Partners, an investment firm focused on investments in Ethiopia has announced that it expects to exceed its first close target of $50 million for its maiden growth equity fund by October 2015, making it very likely that it will hit its $75 million final close target by the end of the year.

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Stellar Capital Partners has formed a new financial services hub with the management buyout of AfrAsia Corporate Finance, the boutique investment bank. The new company, Stellar Investment Holdings, will still specialize in investment banking advisory services and corporate lending, and could benefit from a potentially lucrative investment management arm with deal flow from Stellar Capital Partners. Business Day quotes Ryan Wood Collier, the CEO of SIH, as saying "The vision behind the Stellar Group is to create a market-leading investment management and advisory firm in SA, emulating the successful models adopted by well-known US private equity firms Blackstone and KKR." 

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Having recently acquired Discovery Copper Botswana, owner of the mothballed Boseto Copper Mine out of liquidation for $35 million last month, private equity firm Cupric Canyon Capital is looking to leverage that investment by investing $200 million bring a new copper-silver mine located some 30 kms away into production. 

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Following the announcement in March this year that Montero Mining and Exploration has entered into a definitive agreement with Ovation Capital to fund the development of Montero's Duyker Eiland phosphate rock properties near Saldanha Bay, the findings of the initial report that the South African investment firm commissioned from DRA Global to review a prior Technical report and a Preliminary Economic Assessment report were announced last week.

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Construction has begun on the 80MW Nooport wind park in South Africa's Northern Cape. The project is owned by a consortium led by Lekela Power, the 60/40 joint venture between emerging markets private equity investor Actis and Irish power develop Mainstream, in partnership with other investors including Thebe Investment Corporation, the IDEAS Managed Fund, Future Growth Asset Management and Genesis Eco-Energy in partnership with Lereko Metier Sustainable Capital. 

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Ghana is preparing to open its two-year domestic bond auctions to foreign investors later this month in a move designed to help the debt-laden country reduce its borrowing costs and attract more offshore funds to invest. Currently foreign investors are limited to making investments in the country's medium and long-term government debt securities. Sources tell Reuters that the government is also planning to have Book Runners arrange domestic bond auctions in the hope that they will rally local participation and start the process of pushing down yields. Ghana's latest 91-day treasury bill sale on Friday attracted a yield of 25.1801% on Friday, compared to 8.165% for similar paper in Kenya.

Greenstone Equity Partners, one of the Middle East's largest fund placement firms, is working with  TIMU Energy Holdings, the joint venture collaboration between infrastructure investor Harith General Partners and renewable energy investment firm Jones Pohl, to raise capital from GCC investors for clean energy and natural gas power projects on the continent.

An interview with Mezuo Nwuneli, the CEO of Sahel Capital Partners which manage the Fund for Agricultural Finance in Nigeria or FAFIN fund. Having held a first close at $34 million recently, the fund is in discussions with various DFIs and institutions to help it achieve a final close of $100 million. Nwuneli discusses the opportunity and shares aspects of the firm's investment strategy with CNBC Africa.

The Abraaj Group has wasted little time in taking advantage of the vast potential offered by Nigeria's burgeoning consumer market, according to a report in Ventures Africa this week. A review of some of the leading emerging market private equity firm's recent investments in Africa's largest economy and its strategy for the country with one of the world's youngest and fastest-growing populations.

South Africa's national development finance institution, the Industrial Development (IDC), is adopting a more proactive investment stance to help it meet its investment target of deploying R100 billion (approximately $8 billion) over the next 5 years. BusinessDay reports that it is actively looking for opportunities in the agroprocessing, renewable energy, manufacturing, industrial infrastructure and mining sectors where it can help to start or scale up private businesses.

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RMB Corvest, a private equity division of South Africa's FirstRand Banking group, is looking to invest between $500 million and R1 billion (approximately $40 million to $80 million) in black-owned companies over the next 12 months. The firm expects to deploy the capital in a number of sectors, including services, healthcare, retail and education, in both existing and new portfolio companies.

While South Africa became the first non-Muslim country in sub-Saharan Africa to issue an islamic bond when it issued a $500 million sukuk last year, a recent report from Standard Chartered finds that a number of the region's countries are looking to issue sukuk as an alternative mechanism to raise funds for some of their key projects. The trend points to the growing interest of sub-Saharan African opportunities to Middle Eastern investors.  

Emerging markets investment bank Renaissance Capital forecast expects growth to slow in both oil exporting and importing countries in sub-Saharan Africa alike, courtesy of the trifecta of low commodity prices, soft global demand and domestic structural constraints. This article looks at the factors particular to Kenya and Nigeria, where the forecast predicts growth to decelerate to 5% and 3.4% respectively from their forecasts earlier in the year.  

While levels of Chinese investment in Africa often lead to alarm-raising headlines of how local and western firms are missing out on the opportunities offered by the continent, Steven Kuo, an Africa Analyst at Control Risks, takes an objective look at the relationship between the China and African countries in this contributed article for Forbes.  

While Nigeria's pension funds are now able to invest as much as 20% of their assets under management in infrastructure opportunities, they still remain largely invested in fixed income securities. CNBC Africa talks to Opuiyo Oforiokuma, the CEO of ARM-Harith's Infrastructure Investments and Niyi Falase, the CEO of pension fund administrator CrusaderSterling Pensions on the challenges and opportunities of investing pension fund assets in infrastructure projects.