Responsible investment

Examined alongside the numbers.

Environmental, social and governance diligence runs alongside financial diligence, not after it. We examine environmental permits and liabilities, labour practices and health and safety, anti-bribery controls, and the ownership of the business and the source of its funds.

What we find is priced into the offer or written into the agreement. A risk we cannot price or fix is a reason not to proceed.

Part of the plan, not a separate report.

Each business we own carries an action plan agreed with its management, covering the issues diligence identified. Progress is overseen by the board and reported to co-investors in the quarterly reports they already receive.

We expect the businesses we own to comply with Nigerian law on labour, health and safety, the environment and data protection as a minimum, and to treat that minimum as the start of the work, not the end of it.

The same rules for us as for them.

We do not pay or accept bribes, and we require the same of every business we own. Conflicts of interest are disclosed before they are discovered. We do not proceed where the identity of a counterparty or the source of their funds cannot be established to our satisfaction.

What we will not finance.

We do not invest in any activity on the International Finance Corporation’s Exclusion List. That list includes weapons and munitions, tobacco, gambling, casinos and equivalent enterprises, and any production or activity involving forced labour or harmful child labour.