Spryva Insight Score: Transforming impact due diligence in emerging markets

Spryva Insight Score: Transforming impact due diligence in emerging markets | Photo: Zach Wear

Across Africa, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) account for 95% of all registered businesses and contribute roughly 50% to total GDP in sub-Saharan countries. Despite their central role in driving economic growth, job creation, and social progress, these businesses face persistent challenges to growth and prosperity, many of which extend beyond access to finance.

One of the most pressing is the difficulty of measuring and communicating their social and environmental impact, a capability increasingly essential for attracting long-term, values-aligned investment. Traditional impact tools are often too complex, too generalized, or disconnected from the realities of African markets. The SPRYVA Insight Score (SIIS)™ offers a powerful alternative: a standardized, locally grounded impact assessment tool designed specifically for African SMEs.

What is SIIS™?

Developed by Sharon Ordor, a Chartered Accountant and impact investment strategist, SIIS is a due diligence tool designed to help investors evaluate the prospective development impact of African SMEs. Leveraging a structured and accessible 105-question framework built around seven proprietary impact indicators, SIIS provides a standardized, context-aware assessment of how well a business is positioned to deliver inclusive and sustainable outcomes.

The tool draws its global credibility from alignment with international frameworks including the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the GIIN IRIS+ system, while remaining grounded in African realities through extensive stakeholder engagement.

Bridging Global Standards with Local Realities

The development of SIIS spanned three years and began with the synthesis of over 1,200 global impact metrics. These were refined through input from 750+ stakeholders, including African entrepreneurs, academics, government ministries, and DFI professionals, with representation from every African country. The result is a lean, decision-useful questionnaire that prioritizes local relevance and practical application.

SIIS™ includes:

·  7 core impact indicators, the most predictive dimensions of development in frontier markets

·  A 105-question scoring system covering ESG and community criteria

·  Full alignment with the Impact Management Project’s five dimensions of impact

Investor-Focused, Insight-Driven

While the tool is not designed for SMEs to complete independently, it generates actionable insights that investors can share with prospective or existing investees, regardless of whether funding is ultimately disbursed. This ensures that value is delivered back into the ecosystem, promoting capacity-building and impact awareness even where capital is limited.

Unlike academic models that often lack real-world usability, SIIS transforms rich qualitative and quantitative data into investment-grade insights. It is especially useful at the seed to Series A stage, where many African SMEs lack formal ESG systems but are poised for high-impact growth.

To ensure data integrity, SPRYVA also offers optional assurance services, led by Chartered Accountants, to validate operational, payroll, and procurement records, mitigating misreporting risks and safeguarding against “impact washing.”

A Living Framework, Constantly Evolving

At the heart of SIIS is an ongoing, participatory feedback mechanism. Each quarter, over 750 stakeholders across Africa review and refine the tool’s indicators, ensuring that the framework evolves in step with market dynamics and community needs. This keeps the model responsive, grounded, and relevant, bridging top-down frameworks with bottom-up realities.

Powering Scalable, Sustainable Investment in Africa

SIIS empowers investors to move beyond superficial ESG checklists, enabling comparative, credible assessments of SME impact potential. In doing so, it bridges the longstanding gap between impact-first capital and on-the-ground transformation, helping channel investment into ventures that align with global sustainability priorities while responding to local development needs.

As Africa’s SME sector continues to mature, tools like SIIS will be pivotal in shaping a new era of transparent, accountable, and high-impact investment.

The SPRYVA Insight Score represents a transformative step in reshaping how African SMEs measure, manage, and communicate their impact. By aligning investor diligence with the lived realities of African enterprises, it fosters a more intentional, equitable approach to financing inclusive growth. Through stakeholder co-creation, local benchmarking, and global alignment, SIIS offers a credible, scalable solution for impact-focused investors seeking to advance sustainable development across the continent—and beyond.

More information: https://spryvainsights.com/