I’ve received lots of great questions from readers via the contact form in recent months. So I thought I’d answer some of them publicly in the hope that they might help answer others’ questions, too. Here’s one from Zimbabwe:

Dear Ryan,

l’m Zimbabwean and don’t earn much, but I feel like I should be investing.

Most of your articles are about Americans investing in Africa at minimum deposits that are far above an amount I can even dream of.

Is it possible for a minimum-wage earner like me to invest on an African stock exchange for a reasonable amount?

Kind Regards,

Nicky

Last week we counted down the ten best African stocks of 2012. There were some eye-popping performances on that list.

This came as no surprise to those of you who have been following the performance of African stock markets. Nigerian investors saw their market rise 55% in dollar-adjusted terms over the past 12 months. The Nairobi Stock Exchange soared 54%. And Zimbabwean stocks jumped 32%.

In light of these gains, many of you have asked whether there are African mutual funds that will allow you to simply and easily direct a portion of your investment portfolio toward these markets.

Here are three that are readily available to South African investors.

While the African political scene is maturing rapidly, a coup in Mali, an upsurge in violence in Cote d’Ivoire, and bloodshed at a South African platinum mine have reminded the investment community that the continent can still be a volatile place.

Alkan Shenyuz is a Managing Director for Veventis, a political risk insurance services firm focused on providing risk management to private equity investors and large-scale project developers in emerging markets.

Here he explains the concept of political risk and how Africa investors can take it into account when putting their money to work on the continent.