DFIs use three kinds of firm: global data publishers (S&P, Wood Mackenzie, GlobalData), technical & advisory consultancies (SRK, DMT, Kumi), and ESG-scoring platforms (Digbee). Afrimintel is a challenger to the first, a complement to the second, and has its one genuine head-to-head with the third — and it competes head-to-head with the publishers and consultancies on neither's core game.
| Firm | Their core game | Afrimintel vs them |
|---|---|---|
| S&P Global MI | Global asset screening, capital costs, metals forecasts; enterprise terminal | Challenger Behind on breadth; ahead on Africa-depth, decision-synthesis, glass-box provenance, price. S&P is global-but-shallow on Africa. |
| Wood Mackenzie | Forecasting to 2050, cost curves, commercial advisory | Deliberate non-overlap Afrimintel does not compete on forecasting — modelled-not-Sourced collides with the standard. Their forward views are theirs. |
| SRK Consulting | Technical DD, geological modelling, bankable feasibility | Complement Afrimintel does not do technical DD. It verifies & normalises the disclosure SRK produces — feeds the DD, never replaces the CPR. |
| DMT Group | CPRs, valuations, EIAs | Complement Same line: Afrimintel indexes & verifies what DMT signs; it does not issue CPRs, valuations, or EIAs. |
| GlobalData | Macro intelligence, equipment records, global project pipelines | Challenger Same camp as S&P / Wood Mac: behind on global breadth + equipment/pipeline volume, ahead on Africa-decision-depth, synthesis, glass-box. Equipment records are out of scope — ceded. |
| Kumi Consulting | Responsible sourcing, OECD-aligned supply-chain DD, socio-economic evaluation | Complement + COI stop Advisory you don't replace — and its OECD / conflict-minerals lane is a hard Afrimintel COI stop (data-layer-only). Cede responsible-sourcing DD; offer only the upstream jurisdiction/counterparty risk in /screening/. |
| Digbee ESG | Mining ESG scoring — assured, member-submitted, performance-oriented, mature | Genuine head-to-head The one real overlap. Afrimintel = glass-box + independent-of-submission (reads public primary disclosure from outside) vs their assured-but-proprietary depth. They're deeper; Afrimintel is more transparent & external. Not "better" — different, and earlier (1 of 7 scored). |
"We already license S&P and we hire SRK — why you?"
S&P doesn't cover African juniors and pre-FID assets at decision depth; SRK is per-project and far too expensive to screen forty assets; and neither hands you one verifiable decision view. Afrimintel is the layer that decides which assets are worth their money — complementary to existing spend, not rip-and-replace.
Comparative positioning from public-record descriptions of each firm's offering; no commercial relationship with any named firm is claimed or implied. See also the verification-discount thesis.