Richard Okello
Our new guide, How we made it in Africa II: Actual tales of entrepreneurs turning alternative into revenue, is obtainable right here.
Interview with Richard Okello
FOUNDER, SANGO CAPITAL
Lives in: Johannesburg, South Africa
Africa-focused investor Richard Okello compares investing on the continent to using a speedboat by way of tough seas whereas making an attempt to drink a glass of wine with out spilling a drop. The job is to get from level A to level B with the liquid intact.
In 2011, Okello established Sango Capital, which now manages just below $1 billion. How we made it in Africa editor-in-chief Jaco Maritz spoke to him concerning the realities of placing capital to work on the continent.
Matters mentioned throughout the interview embody:
- Rethinking threat in Africa
- Excessive-potential nations
- Industries providing the most effective upside
- Navigating the hardest facets of the job
- Sango Capital’s largest funding wins
Watch the complete interview beneath:
Richard Okello was born in Kenya, however grew up in Uganda. A scholarship then took him to Wales, the place he attended highschool on the United World School of the Atlantic. From there, he moved to the USA to review at Swarthmore School, simply outdoors Philadelphia.
Okello started his foray into investing within the US at well-known investor Ray Dalio’s Bridgewater Associates. He joined when the hedge fund was comparatively small – managing lower than $1 billion – and stayed for about 9 years because it scaled considerably.
Following Bridgewater, Okello transitioned to Makena Capital, a San Francisco-based funding agency. Later in his tenure at Makena, he helped steer the agency’s first investments in Africa.
That have paved the way in which for his subsequent transfer: launching his personal Africa-focused funding store, Sango Capital.
Right now, Sango raises cash from worldwide traders – significantly North American endowments, foundations, household workplaces, and pensions. It then invests that capital into African non-public fairness, enterprise capital, and personal debt funds, whereas additionally making direct investments in native corporations.
Standout investments
Considered one of Sango’s standout investments has been Sundry Markets, the mum or dad firm of Marketsquare, a Nigerian grocery store chain based by entrepreneur Ebele Enunwa. (Our first guide tells the in-depth story of how Enunwa constructed his enterprise. It’s obtainable right here).
Regardless of the regular rise of air-conditioned malls and fashionable grocery chains, roughly 90% of retail transactions in Nigeria nonetheless circulation by way of casual channels – a vibrant ecosystem of roadside stalls, open-air markets, and hawkers weaving by way of gridlocked visitors.
But, as Okello notes, a rising variety of Nigerians more and more favor the comfort of organised retail over haggling at casual markets. Anticipating that shift paid off: Sango partially exited its stake in Sundry Markets a couple of years in the past, securing what Okello describes as a “very excessive” greenback a number of on the funding.
One other worthwhile funding for Sango was CMGP, a Moroccan agricultural provider. The corporate supplies farmers with every part from irrigation programs and water pipes to seeds and fertilisers. It went public on the Casablanca Inventory Trade in December 2024.
Mapping the alternatives
When requested the place he sees essentially the most promise, Okello factors to Egypt, which he describes as “very intentional about turning into a middle-income nation”. A key benefit is its inhabitants of some 120 million. For companies, which means an unlimited market the place they’ll obtain vital scale with out ever crossing a border. Because of large-scale latest funding, he expects Egypt to quickly eclipse South Africa to grow to be the continent’s largest financial system.
The investor can also be cautiously optimistic about Nigeria following a collection of reforms. Particularly, he highlights the elimination of a gas subsidy that beforehand value the federal government billions of {dollars} a 12 months, and the transfer to permit the native forex to devalue sharply, as much-needed corrective measures.
He’s equally upbeat about Côte d’Ivoire. The world’s largest cocoa producer has been one of many continent’s fastest-growing economies, averaging greater than 6% annual progress over the previous decade.
South Africa presents a unique type of alternative. Okello concedes its broader financial outlook is subdued – a actuality underscored by the IMF lately reducing its 2026 progress forecast to only 1.0% attributable to geopolitical shocks within the Center East. But the nation boasts a robust non-public fairness sector, deep markets and seasoned company operators. He contrasts this with Ethiopia. Regardless of posting sturdy annual progress of practically 8% over the previous decade, Ethiopia’s comparatively shallow non-public sector presents far fewer alternatives for a agency like Sango.
Turning to East Africa, he sees stable potential in markets like Kenya and Tanzania. Whereas acknowledging some political uncertainty in Tanzania, he expects the nation will “in all probability shock on the upside” as a result of the federal government is “doing a number of huge issues”. A major instance is a $10 billion railway venture designed to hyperlink the port of Dar es Salaam to Lake Victoria, and ultimately to landlocked neighbours together with Rwanda, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. With a number of sections already full, the community is poised to overtake the area’s freight transport.
Whereas additionally bullish on Morocco, the Sango managing accomplice warns that property there are getting costly. Valuations are prone to rise even additional because the nation prepares to co-host the 2030 soccer World Cup alongside Spain and Portugal, driving a surge in native funding. “To generate profits, you may have to have the ability to purchase issues on the proper worth,” he says. “You might do this generally in Morocco but it surely’s getting tougher.”
Promising sectors
On a sector stage, Okello is especially eager on African retail. “The transformation from unorganised retail to organised retail is underway,” he notes. He moreover sees vital upside in quick meals, an trade propelled by fast urbanisation.
Non-public healthcare presents one other promising avenue, from pharmacies to clinics coping with situations like diabetes and hypertension. “As African wealth rises, these ailments transfer in and you must have service suppliers for them,” he explains.
Okello can also be upbeat concerning the expertise sector throughout each early and progress levels. He factors to platforms addressing on-line training, digital funds, and the onboarding of unbanked small merchants into the formal monetary system as enticing areas.
