No joke: According the African Development Bank it’s efforts to channel critical investment funding to Africa’s entrepreneurs received a “big boost” (!) on Thursday in Abidjan, where the Bank’s executive directors approved €7 million equity investment in Partech Africa Fund.

Partech is a Venture Capital Fund dedicated to investing in tech-enabled, innovative, high growth potential and talented entrepreneurs operating early stage companies and applying relevant technologies to address fundamental market constraints with potential to scale across the continent.

With hubs/offices in Dakar, Nairobi and planed for Lagos, the Fund is targeting nine Sub-Saharan African countries (South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Cameroun, Senegal, Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda).

It focuses on i) financial inclusion (fintech, insurtech, pay as you go, off-grid energy) ii) online and mobile consumers; and iii) more broadly on tech adoption in enterprises especially in industry, education, logistics and transport, health, and agriculture value chain applications.

Read the full press release of AfDB