Integrated Talks with Namhla Saba

Namhla Saba in this episode talks to Sibulele Ndandani a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) with close to 20 years of experience in investment banking focusing on Africa private markets (debt and equity), corporate credit and project finance. She currently works at a pension fund as a capital allocator to funds across Africa.

Namhla and Sibulele discussed the following:
- What does the ESG integration landscape look like in Private Equity (General Partner) funds in Africa?
-What are key considerations that emerging funds should consider when creating their policies and procedures to align with capital allocators' key imperatives?
- What are the key considerations for reporting between underlying investment and the LP?
- How are institutional investors navigating greenwashing/ impact washing in Africa?

With growing global climate change concerns and significant inequality and poverty challenges especially in Africa and other merging markets, capital plays a vital role in contributing towards alleviating some of these key challenges. Institutional investors are best placed to help encourage fund managers and allocators to find deals and investments that can meet both the required financial return and the imperative impact objectives.

ESG integration is an important tool that helps GP and LPs manage ESG risks while creating value for multiple stakeholders. However, a  recent study and report by PwC, surveying 300 general partners (GP) and limited partners (LP) in Europe, Asia Specific, the UK and the United States notes that Private Equity GPs have limited entrenchment of ESG considerations and that PE LPs attribute the lowest degree of strategic importance to ESG reporting.

For more information or topics to discuss email us at [email protected]

In this episode, Namhla Saba (MD of Integrated Thinking Solutions),  interviews Zintle Raziya the founder of Igniting Humanity who is a  Mandela Washington Fellow and One Young World delegate and has been selected as a representative for South Africa to receive an award as a New Leader for Development for the international organization Crans Montana Forum.  

Youth unemployment is one of South Africa's stubborn significant challenges, we discuss the benefits and opportunities in effectively alleviating youth unemployment  through the demand led approach, inclusive growth and co-creation. 

In this episode we discuss 

• her vested interest and experience in supporting inclusive growth, economic and social justice, and delivering youth employability initiatives in a socially and environmentally responsible manner, to create shared value.  
• Igniting Humanity the NPC and its core objectives around youth development
• the merits of the  "demand led approach" to Youth employment and how it fosters youth employability by setting youth up for national and global work opportunities
• the importance of co-creation between the private sector and communities  for social impact driven imperatives

For more information or request for topic discussion email [email protected]
Find Igniting Humanity at www.ignitinghumanity.co.za

The host, Namhla Saba, brings awareness to investors who want to understand what and how their investments, managed by asset managers and investment companies, contribute to sustainability.  This enables investors to understand better the contribution they themselves are ultimately making to sustainability. This episode also helps investors have clarity of their investment companies ESG strategies.

Namhla unpacks some of the predominantly used sustainable finance strategies by financial institutions and investment companies in their quest to contribute to social, environmental or economic sustainability. The host unpacks how these different strategies contribute to meeting the SDG's.

This episode is as follows:
03:36- 10:00 Recap on the core objectives of sustainability
10:01-30:01 Sustainable Finance Strategies used by Investment Companies as they             contribute to sustainability

For any improvement suggestions and topic requests you'd like us to discuss for you, email us at [email protected]

In episode 1, Namhla Saba, the host, spends the first 11 minutes articulating the purpose and contextual background of the podcast.  The remainder of episode 1, Namhla unpacks the “sustainable development” definition as the initial building block to gaining understanding of the sustainable development universe. She repackages the definition  in such a manner that it becomes a generic framework for listeners to use and  filter subsequent topics. 

This podcast of unpacking “sustainable development” definition answers the following questions?

 -what is “sustainable development”  aiming to achieve and why?
 -why is it essential  for business, asset managers, institutional investors, financial institutions?
 -what role can and should individuals play in, holding brands accountable?