Private Equity as a Developmental Catalyst: A Three-Level Framework for Inclusive Entrepreneurship in Africa

Private equity (PE) is increasingly positioned as a vehicle for entrepreneurial development in Africa, yet its reach and impact remain uneven. This paper proposes the Three-Level Developmental Private Equity (3LD-PE) Framework to analyse how PE catalyses or constrains entrepreneurial growth under conditions of institutional fragility, financial exclusion, and enterprise informality. The model employs Agency Theory, Resource-Based View (RBV), Financial Constraint Theory (FCT), and Institutional Theory to conceptualise PE as a multi-level actor that operates at the firm (micro), financial system (meso), and institutional (macro) levels. The model presents five empirically testable propositions which focus on governance, strategic capability, capital access, institutional engagement, and business resilience. The paper focuses on distributional dynamics to illustrate how gender, geography, and enterprise form determine who benefits from PE interventions and who remains excluded. The paper proposes a research and policy agenda for more inclusive, accountable, and context-responsive PE strategies in African entrepreneurial ecosystems