With some innovation, African kindness can become a force for growth and impact

High net worth African families and diaspora communities are willing to give, but their impact is often undermined by the lack of financial instruments, tax incentives and programmatic linkages to which they can contribute. Panellists at a Wealth4Impact discussion called for more structured giving, stronger collaboration and better ways to measure results.

Giving is very much a part of Africans’ cultural identity, which is why remittances from Africans living abroad consistently outstrip foreign direct investment into the continent. 

Currently, however, much of the money is sent through informal channels and mostly for social spending. Directing some of these resources into structured programmes could have greater impact and help address some of the broader social challenges in the continent.  

This was the question addressed by a discussion on “Stewarding African Wealth: Catalysing Diaspora Philanthropy for African Development,” organised by Wealth4Impact in collaboration with AFFORD and Standard Bank on the sidelines of this year’s FT Africa Summit. 

Speakers drawn from philanthropy, wealth advisory and development examined how African wealth could be channelled into more sustained and accountable giving, and how families, foundations, diaspora networks and local organisations could work together more effectively.

Joining the panel via video link, Tsitsi Masiyiwa, chair of Higherlife Foundation and Delta Philanthropies, recalled that her family has been engaged in philanthropy for about 30 years, starting around the same time that she and her husband were establishing a mobile communications business. 

Masiyiwa said the desire to support others was driven by generosity and faith, and they had persevered through various challenges that even cost them socially and professionally. 

With about 450,000 scholarships extended so far, Masiyiwa said beneficiaries of the programmes have grown to make tremendous contributions around the world. 

“You’ll find our recipients in the village and towns. You’ll find them at Oxford, at Google and at Amazon. You’ll find them at Econet and Cassava Technologies [companies controlled by the Masiyiwa family], which is really heartwarming,” she said.

Masiyiwa, who was interviewed by Dr Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli, co-founder of Wealth4Impact, said the African diaspora is an important source of skills, investment, innovation and financial support for both home and host countries, but cautioned against treating it as a homogeneous community. 

New opportunities

First-generation migrants often maintain strong connections with their countries of origin, while those born in host countries could have weaker ties and different ways of engaging with their ancestral homes. “The diaspora is very important, but we are not all the same,” she said.

Masiyiwa argued that discussions about diaspora contributions too often focused on how to extract value from remittances rather than recognising the wider contributions migrants make to African societies. 

“The diaspora plays a very important role, not just for remittances but also the skills they bring, the investments they make in the host country and in the home country, the innovations,” she said. “We are important to our communities, and we are unique in that we bring value both at home and in the host country.”

Masiyiwa said her concern about the limited recognition of African philanthropy helped inspire the establishment of Remit Hope, a digital platform to make it easier for Africans abroad, as well as those on the continent, to contribute directly to community organisations whose work often depends on volunteers and which often have limited resources. 

The platform currently covers 13 African countries, and Masiyiwa said the ambition is to cover all 54 African countries. While regulatory issues are currently being ironed out, the capacity to integrate with other platforms and allow users to donate seamlessly, she said, would be a gamechanger. 

Masiyiwa urged diaspora professionals, investors and technology companies to focus on practical steps that could expand giving, even while the regulatory architecture remains under construction.

“For those who can do short-term actions, let us think about the things we can do quickly. For those who can do long-term solutions, we need to work together to see how we can really pick out the regulatory constraints that can unlock giving at a phenomenal value,” she urged. 

Bimpe Nkontchou, founder and managing principal of WB Advisory, which works with about 30 high net worth families in Africa, said effective philanthropy should begin with putting structures in place to manage resources, establish clear decision-making processes and determine how much could be allocated to giving.

Nkontchou said African families already give generously through informal channels, including contributions to funerals, weddings, birthdays and other social milestones. 

The challenge now, she said, is how families can “give in a more sustained way.” She said donations towards financing schools or hospitals, for example, can come to nought without systems for maintenance, funding and continued management.

“The next generation of Africans are looking at how to ensure that the family’s wealth is deployed in a very responsible, structured way with impact,” Nkontchou said, noting that younger family members are now increasingly concerned with establishing mechanisms that would ensure community investments continued to deliver benefits over time, rather than just giving one-off donations to particular projects.  

Hosh Ibrahim, a member of the advisory council of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, said changing global circumstances and the limitations of traditional development models are creating opportunities for a new generation of philanthropists to rethink how they deploy their resources. 

“Philanthropy is at its very best when it is catalytic of different changes, when it is innovative,” he said. “It is not just business that brings a lot of money to the table. What philanthropy can do is be brave.”

Ibrahim said this shift is also encouraging greater collaboration between philanthropic organisations. 

Shared challenges

Whereas donors had previously tended to pursue individual initiatives and seek recognition for their work, more are now pooling their experience and resources to address shared challenges.

“I sit on donor tables where we have about 20 donors get together and leverage everyone’s experience to do the best kind of work,” he said.

Ibrahim said collaborative funding was taking different forms, including impact investment and co-investment by donors in a range of organisations, with the aim of encouraging them to work together rather than operate in isolation.

“We need the people on the ground to be as resilient as possible, and to work together and to collaborate,” he said, noting that there is growing cooperation among organisations that had previously competed for funding.

Didi Etomi, director of strategic partnerships, Zacheus Onumba Dibiaezue Memorial Libraries, said partnerships, strong governance and clearly defined funding mechanisms had enabled her family’s library initiative to expand while creating a structure through which other donors could contribute to its work.

Etomi said the family has established a distinction between the family and the institution, with an independent board of trustees responsible for holding the organisation accountable to its vision and mission. Family members help set its direction and sit on the board, while the independent trustees provide an additional layer of oversight.

“We have ring-fenced some assets that are just for the library,” she said, explaining that some assets had been placed under professional management, while others had been transferred to a trustee as part of the endowment. 

The structure allows the organisation to earmark contributions for specific purposes and plan for the long-term growth of its resources. The library, established by her mother in honour of her grandfather, has grown over 25 years to 55 libraries across seven Nigerian states, collaborating with national libraries, schools and other institutions. 

Effective philanthropy also requires discipline and clear governance procedures, Boko Inyundo, an investor and family philanthropist, argued.

 A diasporan African based in the United Kingdom, Inyundo said his approach reflects the experience of his parents, who opted to utilise professional assistance in solving a water problem in rural Kenya. “Giving is not just about generosity; it is about discipline,” he stressed.

Inyundo said the experience had taught him to prioritise outcomes over activities when deploying philanthropic resources. “Do not focus on the activity, focus on the impact,” he said, explaining that demonstrating the value of giving could encourage more people to contribute and attract additional capital to expand successful initiatives. 

He stressed that governance was essential to sustaining such efforts. “You need to have rules, guardrails, frameworks around which you give,” he said.

Jonathan Sprigg, who advises wealthy African families and diaspora clients on structuring their wealth, said there is considerable appetite for philanthropy among Africans who have built fortunes abroad, but many struggle to identify the right platforms and mechanisms to turn their intentions into lasting impact. 

After three decades of working with wealthy families across Africa, he said he had seen a shift towards more deliberate, structured giving, with greater emphasis on impact and legacy. “There is a lot of wealth, there is a lot of desire to have impact,” he said. “Everyone wants to create a legacy, not necessarily in their name, but they want to know that their money is going to have an impact.”

Responding to a question about tax benefits, Nkontchou said Nigeria’s latest tax act, introduced in January, still offers no tax relief for individual donors. 

Corporates could claim a deduction of up to 10%, but charities first had to navigate extensive bureaucracy to secure government recognition. In contrast, tax incentives for philanthropy are more established in the United Kingdom and the United States.

Nkontchou said the absence of such mechanisms discourages African donors in the diaspora who may want to support causes in their home countries. She said philanthropy needs to be made accessible beyond ultra-wealthy individuals capable of establishing their own foundations.

 “You do not want people to feel that they are not rich enough to give and that philanthropy is for the rich people. No, it is for everyone,” she stressed.

Nkontchou proposed structured funds, potentially based in jurisdictions with tax-efficient arrangements, that would allow donors to contribute regularly while choosing areas such as healthcare, education or infant mortality.

 “If I have got $1,000 to give, and many of us do have that, then let us know that we can do it through a structured entity,” she said, adding that transparency and evidence of impact are essential to building trust and encouraging sustained giving.

Dr. Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli and Eme Essien-Lore, co-founders of Wealth4Impact, reinforced their commitment to galvanising the diaspora and other ecosystem partners to drive the emergence of more financial tools, programmatic support and tax incentives to channel more structured and strategic philanthropy from the UK to various African countries. 

Building on the momentum of the stakeholders in the convening and their work with Nigerian families, they are excited about co-creating innovations that foster group, matching, and pooled giving in Africa to drive sustainable development and impact.