Kukula Capital is proud to have served as knowledge partner to the Zambian National Advisory Board for Impact Investment (NABII) on the 2025 Zambia Impact Investment Market Sizing Study — the most comprehensive assessment of Zambia’s impact investment landscape to date.
Why this study matters
Impact investing in Zambia has long suffered from a fundamental information deficit. Without reliable data on the size, composition, and performance of the market, investors struggle to build conviction, policymakers struggle to design effective interventions, and the sector struggles to grow. The 2025 Zambia Impact Investment Market Sizing Study addresses this directly — providing the first rigorous, independently verified estimate of Zambia’s impact investment market, with granular data on asset classes, sector flows, investor profiles, and deployment trends.
The headline finding is striking: with the market nearing ZMW 1.9 billion, Zambia’s impact investment ecosystem is larger and more developed than many have assumed. The data confirms what Kukula has long observed on the ground — that serious, patient capital is already working in this market, and that the conditions for scaling it meaningfully are in place.
Kukula’s role
As knowledge partner, Kukula Capital contributed analytical expertise, local market insight, and an extensive network of relationships across Zambia’s investment community to the research process. At the official launch event, Darryl Higgins, Partner at Kukula Capital, presented the study’s key findings, outlining a methodology that combined investor interviews, policymaker consultations, and live business case studies to validate market insights.
The data confirmed that DFIs and pension funds remain the largest sources of capital by value, while private equity and venture capital account for more transactions but at smaller individual ticket sizes. Sectorally, energy and renewable power led capital deployment, followed by financial services and fintech, agriculture and food systems, and climate-focused investments — with affordable and clean energy the most closely aligned Sustainable Development Goal, reflecting strong policy alignment with Zambia’s national energy and development strategies.
Higgins also highlighted the structural barriers that continue to constrain the market: foreign exchange risk, regulatory bottlenecks, thin pipeline quality, and exit constraints — particularly challenging for private equity funds operating on fixed timelines. A notable trend in the data is a growing shift toward credit-based and self-liquidating instruments, with blended finance structures and ongoing regulatory reforms seen as critical to scaling impact capital deployment at the pace the market requires.
The study was commissioned by NABII and developed in partnership with GSG Impact and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. The full report is available to download from our Publications section.
From insight to action
Zambia’s impact investment story is no longer one that needs to be told without evidence. The 2025 Sizing Study provides the foundation on which investors, development finance institutions, and policymakers can build with confidence. The focus now shifts, appropriately, from mapping the market to mobilising it.