Anglo American Supports Zambia’s Impact Investment Drive

Global mining company Anglo American has reaffirmed its commitment to advancing impact investing in countries where it operates, including Zambia, by sponsoring the Zambia Impact Investment Summit (ZIIS). The company believes that corporate entities have a pivotal role in promoting positive social and environmental change through responsible business practices.

During the Zambia Impact Investment Summit 2023, held under the theme “Zambia Rising; Harnessing Solutions for a Sustainable Future,” Anglo American’s Principal for Sustainable Business Opportunities, Emma Parker, emphasized the private sector’s critical role in addressing global challenges. The company aims to integrate impact investing into its business model to create lasting positive change while delivering commercial and stakeholder value. Anglo American is committed to collaborating with diverse partners to drive innovation, build resilience, and contribute to a more sustainable and equitable world.

Anglo American acknowledges that addressing pressing challenges like climate change, social inequality, and resource scarcity requires collective efforts from all sectors of society. Impact investing, which seeks to generate positive social and environmental impact alongside financial returns, has emerged as a powerful tool in tackling these challenges.

The Zambia Impact Investment Summit (ZIIS) is an annual event hosted by the National Advisory Board for Impact Investment (NABII), in collaboration with Impact Capital Africa (ICA). The summit aims to nurture a thriving Zambian impact investment ecosystem by bringing together key stakeholders, including investors, impact companies, banks, corporates, and intermediaries. The event focuses on showcasing local opportunities to attract investment. Since 2018, ICA has facilitated over $125 million of capital investment into Zambian SMEs, with the conference playing a crucial role in highlighting Zambia’s talent.

Anglo American firmly believes that corporates have a unique role in the impact investing ecosystem. By leveraging their resources, expertise, and global reach, they can remove barriers and constraints preventing the flow of impact capital into local SMEs, explore innovative financing approaches with investors and banking partners, and support economic diversification and job creation. The company is committed to leading by example and has established the Impact Finance Network to drive its corporate impact investing initiatives.

“As a corporate, we have the opportunity to use our unrestricted capital to design a program, the Impact Finance Network, which helps identify these businesses and prepare them for investment by providing quality technical assistance. And then unlocking finance through our network of investors via our curated matching process,” added Mrs. Parker.