Norfund (Norwegian Investment Fund for Developing Countries) is an investment company intended to develop and establish profitable and sustainable enterprises in poor countries. The objective is to promote business development and contribute to economic growth and poverty alleviation. Norfund operates in some of the world’s poorest countries and invests in markets where ordinary commercial enterprises are often reluctant to venture alone because of the high risk. Norfund invests equity, directly in enterprises and indirectly through funds, as well as providing loans to individual companies.

Norfund is a hybrid company with limited liability established and operated under special legislation (the Norfund Act ) and owned by the Norwegian Government through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Norfund acts as a key instrument of Norwegian development policy, and the Storting (Norwegian parliament) allocates annual capital grants to Norfund in its development assistance budget.

Norfund’s investments are divided into four investment areas: Financial Institutions, SME Funds, Renewable Energy and Industrial Partnerships. The organization currently has 47 employees distributed between the main office in Oslo and regional offices in Bangkok, Johannesburg, Nairobi and San José (Costa Rica). At the middle of 2011, Norfund had a committed portfolio of about USD 1.4 billion.

Norfund’s main regions of activity are Eastern and Southern Africa. In addition, Norfund invests in Central America and selected countries in Southeast Asia (Bangladesh, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam). Read more about our investment regions here.

Norfund succeeds in its goal of creating sustainable development and alleviating poverty because we undertake profitable investments that give rise to viable enterprises. This is achieved mainly with the aid of our solid professional skills in the field of investment, combined with sound knowledge of the frameworks prevailing in the countries and sectors in which we invest, the enterprises and their managements, and the partners with whom we co-invest.

DFIs as the third pillar of development policy

Norfund is a development finance institution (DFI). Bi- and multilateral DFIs in many ways represent a third pillar in international development cooperation, along with bilateral and multilateral aid. All these channels are important in the struggle against poverty, but the DFIs constitute the channel that contributes most directly to economic development by boosting the private sector and thereby reducing dependence on development aid. Today, DFIs are the principle development policy instrument for promoting a profitable business sector and encouraging more private businesses to invest in developing countries.

Norfund aims to be one of the best among its European sister funds. To achieve this goal, Norfund intends to prove that it is possible to combine a clear poverty-oriented profile with a profitability which is sufficient to mobilize more private capital to the poorest countries.

Norfund´s four investment areas