Jobs Study The Central Africa SME Fund, Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) ventures program of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) invests in funds targeting International Development Association (IDA) fragile and frontier countries where acute development needs persist. The Central Africa SME fund (CASF) is one of the funds to which IFC has committed risk capital and technical assistance (TA) CASF provides private equity, long term debt and management expertise to SMEs in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the Central African Republic (CAR) This study gives insight into the employment effects of CASF's investments in SMEs in the fragile state context of the DRC. The study is based on a sample of eleven portfolio SMEs located in Kinshasa. The structure of this report is as follows: Chapter 2 discusses the study's approach, data sources and limitations; Chapter 3 introduces the macro economic context of the DRC, as well as CASF and its portfolio; Chapter 4 presents the results of the value chain analysis of sample SMEs; Chapter 5 provides insights into indirect and induced jobs related to sample SMEs; Chapter 6 discusses how fragility in the DRC affects CASF's activities, and vice versa; and Chapter 7 presents the study's conclusions and recommendations.