Frequently asked questions

SAIIF acts as a convener, funder, and advisor. We sit between funders and beneficiaries with a specific job: turn operational and programme funding into impact capital, deployed with specialised local expertise. Our work spans advisory and funding support, research and learning, and ecosystem convening and advocacy.

Our primary focus is West Africa. We take a place-based approach to innovative finance, developing financial solutions designed for West African markets and contexts. Tools that may be conventional elsewhere can be genuinely innovative when adapted to local conditions, infrastructure, and investor expectations in the region.

SAIIF is headquartered in Accra, Ghana, at No. 22 Justice E. P Sowah Avenue, East Legon, Accra P. O. Box CT 6938 – Cantonments. We work with partners and stakeholders across West Africa and globally.

SAIIF is the institute focused on thought leadership, research, ecosystem development, and innovative finance programmes in West Africa. Savannah Impact Advisory is a separate entity led by our Interim Executive Director, Hamdiya Ismaila, with deep expertise in private markets fund structuring and fund investing. The two organisations share a commitment to impact and ecosystem development in the region, but serve distinct roles.

Our vision is a prosperous, gender-equal, and inclusive West Africa. We pursue this by acting as a catalyst that connects capital with the entrepreneurs, institutions, and ideas that move the region forward.

We focus on structural and behavioural gaps that conventional finance has failed to close. These include the persistent exclusion of women entrepreneurs from development financing and the mismatch between the type, pricing, and risk-return expectations of available funding. Across all programmes, we judge progress against two challenges: investment mismatch and gender inequality.

SAIIF takes a place-based approach to innovative finance to address the gap between private capital and traditional development aid in West Africa. This means developing financial solutions that work for West Africans rather than importing models wholesale. Innovation, for us, is defined by what closes funding gaps and improves outcomes in this specific regional context.

Across all three focus areas, every programme we run drives at least one of three forms of innovation: generating new funding, improving funding efficiency, or enhancing results-orientation. Programmes are designed to deliver measurable progress against investment mismatch, gender inequality, or both.

Our objectives include ecosystem development; scaling impact across the region; building synergies with partners globally; building capacity of practitioners and institutional investors; research and policy analysis; case study development; and contributing to the body of knowledge within the impact investing ecosystem.

SAIIF works through three connected focus areas: Advise and Fund, Research and Learn, and Connect and Lead. Together, they deploy innovative finance tools to address the development funding gap in West Africa.

Through Advise and Fund, we identify, evaluate, and prepare select enterprises for funding; engage investors to co-invest; and develop new financing tools through the Savannah Alternative Investment Fund (SAIF). We provide targeted technical assistance so capital can be absorbed productively, and we deploy capital with a deliberate gender lens.

Through Research and Learn, we conduct research and support knowledge transfer to develop innovative finance tools. We produce reports and position papers that address knowledge gaps with a deliberate West Africa lens, and we monitor and evaluate SAIIF programmes and investments so partners see honest evidence of what works.

Through Connect and Lead, we serve as an advocacy body for development aid in West Africa—with positions grounded in our own research and portfolio—and we organise events that connect thought leaders, new impact investors, and investees to mobilise impact investment across the region.

Where capital needs to move faster than standard fund timelines allow, SAIIF provides bridge finance into the Savannah Alternative Investment Fund (SAIF) and out to beneficiaries, so promising deals and programmes do not stall on administrative calendars.

Gender equality is a core challenge SAIIF addresses, not an add-on. We finance select enterprises through SAIF with a deliberate gender lens, choosing capital structures that reach women entrepreneurs at scale. We also address inconsistent access to and control of capital and unfocused earmarked development aid that fails to reach women-led businesses effectively.

The Savannah Alternative Investment Fund (SAIF) is SAIIF's vehicle for deploying impact capital. Through SAIF, we co-invest with partners, develop new financing tools, use guarantees and structured instruments to de-risk deals, and finance enterprises—particularly with a gender lens. SAIF is central to our Advise and Fund focus area.

No. Information on the SAIIF website and in our publications is for general informational and educational purposes only. It does not constitute investment, financial, legal, tax, or other professional advice, and should not be treated as an offer or solicitation to buy or sell securities. You should consult qualified professionals before making financial decisions.

Yes. SAIIF engages institutional investors, foundations, development finance institutions, and other capital providers to co-invest and develop financing tools through SAIF. If you are an investor interested in impact capital in West Africa, contact us through the website to discuss alignment with our mandate and focus areas.

SAIIF identifies, evaluates, and prepares select enterprises for funding as part of our Advise and Fund work—not through an open call listed on this website. If you represent an enterprise or operator working on impact in West Africa, we welcome an introductory conversation via our contact form to understand fit with our current programmes.

SAIIF's primary model is innovative finance and impact investment rather than traditional grant-making. We work to turn operational and programme funding into impact capital and to improve the efficiency and results-orientation of development finance. Specific instrument types depend on the programme and partnership context.

We work with investors, governments, foundations, development finance institutions, NGOs, researchers, entrepreneurs, and ecosystem partners across West Africa and globally. Our contact page welcomes enquiries from investors, operators, policy partners, and researchers.

SAIIF's working board includes social finance and development partners such as UBS Optimus Foundation, International Finance Corporation (IFC), Ashoka, Ghana Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Protection, Nigeria Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, Mastercard Foundation, Unilever Ghana, and the Bertha Centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Board composition may evolve as partnerships develop.

Partnership enquiries are welcome through our contact form or by email. Tell us about your organisation, the focus area you are interested in (Advise and Fund, Research and Learn, or Connect and Lead), and what you hope to achieve. We review each enquiry against our mandate, objectives, and current programme capacity.

Yes. Connect and Lead includes advocacy for development aid in West Africa grounded in SAIIF research and portfolio experience. We also build capacity among practitioners and engage on policy and regulatory outcomes relevant to innovative finance, as reflected in our team's ecosystem development work across Ghana and the wider region.

Our Insights section will host reports, position papers, and case studies on innovative finance with a deliberate West Africa lens. The public library is being built and will open on the Insights page. You can subscribe for updates there or contact us to discuss commissioned research.

Yes. If you have research you want to commission on innovative finance, contact us through the website. Research and Learn covers reports, position papers, monitoring and evaluation of SAIIF programmes, and knowledge transfer to develop new finance tools.

Yes. Through Connect and Lead, SAIIF organises events that connect thought leaders, new impact investors, and investees. Convenings are part of our roadmap milestones and ongoing ecosystem-building work. Contact us or subscribe to updates to hear about upcoming events.

Case study development is one of SAIIF's stated objectives. We develop case studies on innovative financing schemes that work and are scalable, contributing to the body of knowledge in the impact investing ecosystem. Published case studies will appear in our Insights library as they become available.

Hamdiya Ismaila serves as Interim Executive Director. She brings over 23 years of experience in finance and investment, including extensive fund-of-funds experience across West Africa, and is Founder and CEO of Savannah Impact Advisory and founder of the Lady Angel Network. Full leadership and team information is available on our Team page.

SAIIF operates with an Operational or Governing Board of Advisors (depending on institutional phase), a management team, and programme staff. Governance structures evolved from a lean start-up phase through soft launch to a steady-state operating model with fuller board and management capacity.

SAIIF was designed to scale in disciplined phases: a start-up phase focused on seed funding and launching Research and Learn; a soft launch phase adding Advise and Fund and securing multi-year funding; and a steady-state phase launching Connect and Lead, convening conferences, and operating a sustained, multi-year model. Details are on our Roadmap and Impact page.

You can reach us by email at info@saiifgh.org, by phone at +233 30 398 3504, or through the contact form on our website. Select your role (investor, operator, policy/government, foundation/NGO, researcher, or other) to help us route your enquiry. We aim to respond within two working days.

Our office hours are Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 17:00 GMT. Enquiries submitted outside these hours will be reviewed on the next business day.

Information you provide through our contact form is used to respond to your enquiry and, where you have opted in, to communicate about SAIIF programmes and publications. We do not sell personal information. Full details are in our Privacy Policy at /privacy.

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If you cannot find the answer you need, contact us at info@saiifgh.org or use the contact form. We are happy to clarify our mandate, programmes, and partnership opportunities directly.