BoI partners Grow Africa to raise $60m Venture Capital Fund for SMEs

Nigeria’s Bank of Industry  is partnering with the Grow Africa Equity to raise a $60 million Venture Capital Fund for Small and Medium Enterprises SMEs in Nigeria. The  funding arrangement will provide funding and strategic and operational support to early stage and fast growing businesses in technology, agriculture, consumer goods and services sectors.

Making this known, the Managing Director, Mr Rasheed Olaoluwa,  said  that BOI’s partnership with Grow Africa is one of the avenues for realising the bank’s vision  of providing sorely needed equity capital and business advice to promising Nigerian businesses and that the Bank remains committed to the pursuit of its core mandate of providing long-term financial support to small, medium and large companies/projects in Nigeria’s key sectors.”

Under the arrangement, the bank has made an investment commitment of $6 million to aid provision of equity capital for fast growing businesses as part of its innovative financing scheme and efforts to expand intervention in the industrial sector from loan disbursements.

On his part, the Managing Director of the company, Mr. Afam Edozie, said “Through this partnership, I hope to see many more entrepreneurs realise their dreams of creating leading companies and delivering massive value to Nigeria.”

The Chairman of Grow Africa Equity Partners, Adedotun Sulaiman, added that with the right type of support, Nigerian businesses could become global leaders. Sulaiman, who also chairs the Boards of Interswitch, SecureID, IDEA, New Horizons and others, said

The Grow Africa Partnership was founded jointly by the African Union (AU), The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and the World Economic Forum in 2011. Grow Africa works to increase private sector investment in agriculture, and accelerate the execution and impact of investment commitments. The aim is to enable countries to realise the potential of the agriculture sector for economic growth and job creation, particularly among farmers, women and youth. Grow Africa brokers collaboration between governments, international and domestic agriculture companies, and smallholder farmers in order to lower the risk and cost of investing in agriculture, and improve the speed of return to all stakeholders.Grow Africa is:

• an African-owned, country-led, market-based and inclusive platform for cross-sector collaboration,
• to increase inclusive and responsible investment in to African agriculture,
• and thereby generate agriculture-driven economic growth that contributes to reducing poverty and hunger.