Salama Capital is a Kigali-based advisory firm led by Angelique K. Kantengwa, a Harvard Kennedy School Mason Fellow with more than 35 years across central banking, financial-sector supervision, national social security governance and development finance. We help clients across Africa raise capital, strengthen governance and get projects delivered.
Governments, DFIs and institutional investors are under pressure to deploy growth capital, and the same problems keep slowing them down. Weak project structuring drags out diligence, governance friction stalls progress, and poorly run institutions lose value along the way.
Founder institutional leadership
Confirmed FDI facilitated*
Combined sector expertise
Capital advisory, risk governance and regulatory work in the sectors that drive Sub-Saharan Africa's economies. Select a sector to see what we do there.
Our mandates regularly extend beyond these five pillars. Talk to a partner
We know how deals get done in East Africa, and we know what global institutional investors and DFIs expect before they commit.
Salama Capital grew out of decades of hands-on work in East African markets.
We sit between promising regional opportunities and global investors, and prepare the first to meet the standards of the second.
Strong governance and risk management protect an asset's value and help it grow, so we build them into the work from the start.
Five practice areas, each led by a senior partner who brings in specialists from the others as a mandate needs them.
Turn a promising asset into an investable one, from the first model to the final close.
Responsible AI adoption that improves how financial and operational work gets done.
Gender-smart criteria and inclusive pipelines for funds, DFIs and enterprises.
Evidence that holds up from baseline to endline, and in front of any board.
Programme design, financial-sector strategy and institutional reform, with board governance built in.
Helping manufacturers and investors get foreign direct investment deals done in Rwanda under the UK’s flagship manufacturing programme.
Finding and vetting Rwandan companies with proven, scalable innovations for Luxembourg’s grant fund.
Designing the legal and governance set-up that lets RTB run agricultural production units as self-sustaining businesses.
DCF models investors can rely on, clean corporate governance and an audit-ready data room from day one.
Digital and AI tools built into everyday workflows, where they save time and support readiness.
2X Challenge and gender-smart metrics built in from the start, which opens the door to dedicated DFI and impact capital.
Equity partners with 55+ years of combined experience lead each deal themselves, through to close.
Angelique Kantengwa is a senior advisory and transaction consultant with more than 35 years of leadership across central banking, financial-sector supervision, and development finance. She is a Harvard Kennedy School MPA graduate, former Senior Director of Financial Stability at the National Bank of Rwanda, and former Managing Director of the Rwanda Social Security Board.
Lina Rutaba is a transaction and strategic-finance adviser with 15 years of experience across Rwanda, France, Canada, and the United States. She leads corporate-finance, capital-structuring, and transaction-advisory work for governments, DFIs, banks, and growth companies. Lina has led more than 20 investment transactions totaling over USD 50M and contributed over USD 30M in FDI to Rwanda.
Why gender-smart capital deployment generates superior risk-adjusted returns in emerging markets, and how institutional allocators can structure investable pipelines beyond basic 2X criteria.
A practical governance and data roadmap for African commercial banks and DFIs to deploy predictive and generative AI workflows while complying with regional supervisory and cyber standards.
A strategic blueprint for mid-market African enterprises and sovereign sponsors preparing balance sheets, data rooms, and governance frameworks for global institutional investment.
Decades in senior roles have built working relationships with governments, DFIs and global advisory institutions.
What to expect when you engage Salama Capital.
Governments and public institutions, development finance institutions (DFIs), banks, pension and sovereign funds, foundations, and growth companies preparing to raise or deploy institutional capital in Rwanda and across Africa.
Every mandate is led by a senior partner. We scope the objective, assemble transaction, governance, M&E, gender-lens or technical specialists as required, and apply partner-level review to every key deliverable. Engagements range from focused diagnostics of a few weeks to multi-year programme support.
We stress-test the financial model (DCF, NAV and scenario analysis), close governance and reporting gaps, build an audit-ready data room, and align the investment case with DFI screening criteria, including ESG and 2X gender-lens requirements, before the company meets investors.
We are headquartered in Kigali and work across East Africa and the wider continent, with most of our experience in manufacturing, agribusiness and agro-processing, energy and natural resources, financial services, and public-sector and NGO programmes.
Yes. We help regulated institutions and growth companies assess AI readiness, map workflows where AI adds measurable value, and put in place governance and risk controls appropriate for supervised financial and public-sector environments.
Send a short outline of your objectives through our contact page or email inquiries@salamacapital.rw. A member of the team responds within two business days to arrange an initial, confidential discussion with a partner.
Tell us about your mandate. A partner will respond within two business days.
