American private equity giant Carlyle Group plans to invest in five more companies in sub-Saharan Africa next year, Bloomberg reported on December 1st citing the group’s head. “Carlyle is targeting the banking, consumers, manufacturing and data processing sectors in sub-Saharan Africa to add five new companies from this region to its assets’ portfolio which currently counts four African firms,” said Marlon Chigwende, Managing Director Carlyle Sub-Saharan Africa Fund (CSSAF), Carlyle’s first fund for sub-Saharan Africa.

“We are looking at companies in Nigeria, South Africa, Mozambique, Zambia and Kenya as well as some pan-African businesses,” he added whilst revealing that the first deals should be announced 2016-begining.

Chigwende also said sub-Saharan would record over the coming years a faster growth than all other regions of the world, except India and China.

In 2014, Carlyle Group announced the final closing of its sub-Saharan investment fund, at 698 million dollars. This amount exceeds the $500 million initially targeted by Carlyle Sub-Saharan Africa Fund.

Carlyle Group, who already has teams based in Lagos and Johannesburg, is now looking to open an office in Nairobi to strenghten its presence in Eastern Africa. The world’s second-largest manager of investment alternatives has already invested in four African companies including Diamond Bank from Nigeria and logistics group J&J Africa from Mozambique.