Richard Okello
Our new ebook, How we made it in Africa II: Actual tales of entrepreneurs turning alternative into revenue, is accessible 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 tough seas whereas attempting 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 slightly below $1 billion. How we made it in Africa editor-in-chief Jaco Maritz spoke to him in regards to the realities of placing capital to work on the continent.
Subjects mentioned throughout the interview embody:
Rethinking danger in Africa
Excessive-potential international locations
Industries providing one of the best upside
Navigating the hardest facets of the job
Sango Capital’s largest funding wins
Watch the complete interview under:
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 Faculty of the Atlantic. From there, he moved to america to review at Swarthmore Faculty, 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 best way for his subsequent transfer: launching his personal Africa-focused funding store, Sango Capital.
As we speak, Sango raises cash from worldwide traders – notably North American endowments, foundations, household workplaces, and pensions. It then invests that capital into African personal fairness, enterprise capital, and personal debt funds, whereas additionally making direct investments in native firms.
Standout investments
Certainly one of Sango’s standout investments has been Sundry Markets, the dad or mum firm of Marketsquare, a Nigerian grocery store chain based by entrepreneur Ebele Enunwa. (Our first ebook tells the in-depth story of how Enunwa constructed his enterprise. It’s accessible right here).
Regardless of the regular rise of air-conditioned malls and trendy grocery chains, roughly 90% of retail transactions in Nigeria nonetheless circulation by casual channels – a vibrant ecosystem of roadside stalls, open-air markets, and hawkers weaving by gridlocked site visitors.
But, as Okello notes, a rising variety of Nigerians more and more choose 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 all the things from irrigation techniques and water pipes to seeds and fertilisers. It went public on the Casablanca Inventory Alternate 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 enormous market the place they’ll obtain vital scale with out ever crossing a border. Due to large-scale current funding, he expects Egypt to quickly eclipse South Africa to grow to be the continent’s largest economic system.
The investor can be cautiously optimistic about Nigeria following a sequence of reforms. Particularly, he highlights the removing of a gasoline subsidy that beforehand price 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 distinct sort of alternative. Okello concedes its broader financial outlook is subdued – a actuality underscored by the IMF lately reducing its 2026 progress forecast to simply 1.0% as a result of geopolitical shocks within the Center East. But the nation boasts a robust personal fairness sector, deep markets and seasoned company operators. He contrasts this with Ethiopia. Regardless of posting strong annual progress of practically 8% over the previous decade, Ethiopia’s comparatively shallow personal sector provides far fewer alternatives for a agency like Sango.
Turning to East Africa, he sees strong 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 large issues”. A main instance is a $10 billion railway undertaking 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 associate 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 could have to have the ability to purchase issues on the proper value,” he says. “You possibly can do this typically in Morocco however it’s getting more durable.”
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 illnesses transfer in and you must have service suppliers for them,” he explains.
Okello can be upbeat in regards to the expertise sector throughout each early and progress levels. He factors to platforms addressing on-line schooling, digital funds, and the onboarding of unbanked small merchants into the formal monetary system as engaging areas.
