For the trustees in this series, the performance question is not abstract — it determines what they can defend to their boards and members.

The most cited evidence comes from Cambridge Associates, which has tracked African private equity and venture capital fund returns since the 1990s. Its Africa PE and VC index has outperformed African public equity benchmarks in multiple vintage years, measured after all fees. At the top end, the numbers are stronger still: top-quartile African PE funds have generated net internal rates of return of 15%+ and above over ten-year periods.

One defining characteristic of African private equity and venture capital has been the wide dispersion in fund performance. Compared with many established markets, the gap between the strongest and weakest managers is significantly larger, meaning that investment outcomes have depended less on the asset class itself and more on rigorous manager selection.