Lima is in the process of investigating further opportunities for the development of community or private partnerships (CPPs) in support of rural development in South Africa.

Lima has established a small team consisting of Emile de Kock from Lima and Geoff de Beer, who is highly experienced in CPPs, to explore the various prospects for implementation. Geoff de Beer has just been contracted by Lima, and has over twenty-seven years of experience within the field of sustainable community based tourism and agriculture development. As the Lead Transaction Advisor for the Maruleng and Bushbuckridge Economic Development Initiative (MABEDI), Geoff has developed many community and private partnerships. He successfully negotiated deals in excess of R 1, 5 billion and is busy in the process of negotiating ones with a further value of R 600 million.

Geoff will be focusing on interacting with parastatal and large-scale commercial agriculture investors, such as Land Bank, DBSA, IDC and Old Mutual, to identify high potential investment opportunities. The team plans to regard Old Mutual as the priority for private sector equity investment (as part of a CPP model) and the additional three mentioned as primary stakeholders, in terms of technical assistance or development finance. Geoff and Emile intend to reach their goals by mid-August this year.