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Zira Capital is a venture capital investment fund set up in 2023 to invest in and support promising small Malian SMEs with strong social and economic potential. Created by Investisseurs & Partenaires (I&P), SIDI has joined this initiative to better meet the demand for local SMEs through a local investment fund.
Mali is a poor country in the Sahel zone that is the victim of a conflict between the north of the country (Sahara), with its desert climate and strong Touareg culture (Berber nomadism), and the south of the country (savannah) where the majority of the Bantu population live around the basins of the Niger and Senegal rivers. Since 2012, the country has been split in two, following the incursion of Islamic movements which now control or threaten almost half the territory, creating instability in terms of security (latent civil war), politics (repeated coups d’état) and diplomacy (clashes between Russia and the West).
Zira wants to target SMEs whose development is often hampered by difficult access to long-term finance and limited access to skills. These are generally companies from the informal sector, created by a promoter who needs a medium-term financial partner to grow. Zira’s aim is to give Malian entrepreneurs the means to realise their growth projects.
