Africa Grows

SAEDF has helped ABN rise to become a primary African broadcast network, with an estimated 120 million viewers in 23 African countries. TV Africa transmits educational material, centered on topics such as AIDS and HIV, along with entertainment programming.

As a result of SAEDF’s investment in 1999, TV Africa created a dynamic broadcast infrastructure that resulted in the creation of more than 120 jobs directly. Indirectly, TV Africa was instrumental in creating approximately 250 jobs through its 41 broadcast affiliates. TV Africa has also helped strengthen the African TV sector by boosting television advertising revenues. This boost has helped both public and private-sector stations to become more profitable. In 2001, SAEDF showed its commitment to TV Africa by assisting the network in its efforts to arrange $22.5 million in new funding.

Since SAEDF’s initial investment, ABN has developed the African Public Broadcast Foundation. The APBF is a nonprofit organization dedicated to encourage and stimulate change across sub-Saharan Africa through terrestrial free-to-air television and radio broadcasting. The ultimate aim of the APBF is to provide sub-Saharan Africa’s estimated 600 million people with content designed to educate and motivate individuals to work for their own development.

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In 1999, the hospitals in the Western Cape of South Africa were facing severe overcrowding. Eerste River Medical Centre (ERMC), a SAEDF portfolio company, was there to help. With 60 available beds, the medical center helps alleviate overcrowding in the other local hospitals. This venture was designed to suit the medical needs of citizens who, unable to pay high medical fees, otherwise went without care. Located in a working class suburb in the Western Cape of South Africa, the ERMC offers secondary care in general medicine and surgery; obstetrics and gynecology; and pediatrics. In addition, ERMC employed 80 local community members at its peak.

SAEDF’s investment in this hospital resulted in an additional breakthrough – business ownership representative of the larger community’s demographic. Whereas the majority of private hospitals in South Africa are owned and operated by the white population, the ERMC is the first private hospital in this region that is owned by black citizens.

ERMC has successfully repaid its investment from SAEDF and has begun private operations – a clear sign of the project’s success and long-term sustainability. And as a result, the Eerste River Medical Centre was able to begin construction in 2009 on a new wing.

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