CATHERINE TINAVAPI: Bar hindrances such as governance, Africa could be next ESG frontier

Africa’s capital markets are reputed to be challenging for foreign institutions to navigate. Yet the region could be the next frontier for environmental, social & governance (ESG) investing.

African economies, with many other frontier and emerging markets, suffered from heavy foreign investor outflows during the initial stages of the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite recovering somewhat, the recent flurry of macro headwinds is limiting foreign investment in Sub-Saharan Africa.

In many of the smaller sub-Saharan countries local equity markets are thinly traded and broadly untapped, though this could give forward-looking international investors first-mover advantage and the ability to identify market-mispricing opportunities.

While African fixed income has historically been traded by local investors such as pension funds and insurance companies, global institutions are starting to take an interest. However, many are sitting on the sidelines due to concerns about inflation and the impact interest rate hikes could have on the region.

Investing in Africa is not always a straightforward undertaking. For some of the largest institutions the risk-reward benefits of investing into the smaller, more illiquid African economies do not make sense, primarily because their sizeable capital allocations risk saturating the local market.

There are also logistical and operational challenges investors need to consider when building up exposures in the region, not least of which is the propensity for certain markets to impose currency controls and foreign exchange restrictions. Take Nigeria, where thin foreign exchange liquidity is a persistent challenge for foreign investors repatriating funds. In this market the mandatory conditions of foreign exchange allocation now include the bundling of spot and forward deals.

Intermediaries and foreign investors whose risk management frameworks do not allow foreign exchange forward deals in Nigeria have limited access to repatriation funds in the market. This is a continuing risk.

Assets rocketed

Investors in African capital markets have also occasionally found themselves being blindsided by the authorities making sudden changes to tax rules or regulation — often with little forewarning. All of these risks need to be carefully considered by investors in Africa.

Fuelled by an assortment of investor demand and regulatory pressure, ESG assets under management have rocketed, with the Global Sustainable Investment Alliance putting the total at $35-trillion in 2020, up from $30.6-trillion in 2018 and $22.8-trillion in 2016.

As capital continues to accumulate in ESG funds Africa is likely to be a major beneficiary — especially as many countries in the region have strengthened their sustainable bond markets. For instance, Ghana announced in 2021 that it was considering issuing $2bn in green and social bonds, with proceeds being deployed to fund development programmes.

Other African markets are following in the footsteps of Europe and parts of Asia and North America by forcing listed companies to disclose information about their ESG. While African markets are giving serious thought to ESG issues, governance continues to be an achilles heel in certain countries. In the absence of strong governance, companies are at risk of not meeting their “E” and “S” objectives.

If ESG in African markets is to thrive, governance should be urgently improved in many countries. Globally there are also potential flaws in the scoring systems at ESG analytics companies. This is because some of the methodologies used to score companies and markets on ESG are not harmonised, frequently leading to anomalous results. It is therefore not unheard of for competing analytics’ firms to award contradictory ratings or scores to identical companies and markets. If the momentum behind ESG investing is to keep growing, these data deficiencies need to be fixed.

Due diligence

Clients are looking to rationalise their operations, especially in complex markets such as Africa. This is because engaging with multiple agent banks in the same region creates challenges for investors and intermediaries as they will need to oversee many due diligence processes. Moreover, clients receive information from agent banks in a number of different formats. Despite the cost implications, these complex set-ups increase the likelihood of errors at the client level.

In response, more banks and brokers are looking to simplify their agent-bank relationships by consolidating the number of sub-custodians they use and appointing vendors on a regional — as opposed to an individual market — basis.

So, what are the advantages of this streamlined approach? By leveraging a global provider operating out of a regional hub, clients only need to perform due diligence on one vendor, instead of visiting multiple agent banks in different markets.

Other benefits to the client include having a simplified settlement instruction process, standardised reporting and consolidated billing, all of which facilitate cost savings, efficiencies and simplicity. Through a more entrenched relationship with a single agent bank clients are able to forge closer strategic partnerships, thereby supporting growth and encouraging innovation.

African markets show enormous potential as investors increasingly chase ESG opportunities. Despite this, there are challenges. Many frontier markets, including those in Africa, do pose risks (such as foreign exchange risk) and these need to be considered.

To navigate African markets it is vital that clients rethink how they manage their sub-custody networks. Many are already doing so, as illustrated by the tacit shift towards consolidation over the last few years.

• Tinavapi is principal & regional head of market insights at Standard Chartered Bank Africa & Middle East.