SMEs to benefit from $200m as govt, NPO eye key investment projects — Business — The Guardian Nigeria News – Nigeria and World News
The Impact Investors Foundation (IIF) said a total of over $200 million has been marked to support micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) through the Nigeria Philanthropy Office (NPO), established by the Presidency and private sector funding initiatives.
The Chief Executive Officer of IIF, Etemore Glover, made the assurance at the just-concluded West Africa Deal Summit in Lagos, saying the Federal Government in alliance with international philanthropic organisations partnership would raise $200 million to support MSMEs and invest in key programmes and projects that would create employment opportunities.
Glover stressed the role of IIF in organising regional summits is to bring together a diverse audience to develop action-oriented strategies aimed at accelerating the deployment of catalytic capital as well as promoting learning, collaboration, and catalytic investments for social and environmental impact while helping grow an energetic and activated community of practice.
The Chairman of IIF Nigeria, Afolabi Oladele, said the foundation established five years ago has helped to stimulate the awareness and need to promote the flow of catalytic capital to support government’s efforts to increase rural development, job creation and economic transformation.
According to him, IIF has been instrumental in establishing the Nigerian National Advisory Board for Impact Investing, bringing together catalytic capital investors and helping the fast-growing catalytic capital community thrive.
He said IIF has led the way in unlocking meaningful impact and additional investment that would not otherwise be possible.
With the West Africa Deal Summit and other initiatives, he expressed the hope that the coming years will see significant new commitments and the collective resolve by the Federal Government and the private sector to work together to unlock new opportunities for impactful investment and accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The Chief Executive of Impact Investing Ghana, Amma Lartey, said the inaugural West Africa Deal Summit held last year in Accra Ghana led to $1.7 million in deals with millions more in the pipeline.
She said: “At that conference, we launched Deal Source Africa and since then the platform has closed $1.7 million in deals with millions more in the pipeline. We launched the Catalytic Capital Africa 2CAfrica campaign, and we spoke about the $1 billion Nigeria wholesale fund and $75 million CiGaba Fund. Both funds now have fund managers.
“We have obtained regulatory approval and in Ghana, initial warehouse investments are being made. But these efforts are only scratching the surface. We still have a $331 billion financing gap. We need more convening, partnerships, and learning from what has worked and hasn’t worked.”
Also speaking, the Country Officer for Nigeria, International Finance Corporation (IFC), Mohammed Aliyu said the bank’s current portfolio in the country as of October this year stood at approximately $2.1 billion.
He said: “This is the second largest portfolio behind South Africa. IFC and partners provided a $1.25 billion financing package to Indorama Eleme Fertilizer and Chemicals Limited in Nigeria. The investment will allow Indorama to ramp up its fertilizer production and develop a port terminal for exports, supporting food production and food security across regional and international markets while fostering job creation in Nigeria.
