funds Archives - Enugu SME Centre

FG Urges Women Entrepreneurs To Apply For MSMEs Survival Fund Scheme

April 24, 2021

by EnuguSME with No Comment Business finance

ABUJA – The Federal Government has pledged its commitment to supporting the operations of women-owned Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Nigeria, even as it has advised them to apply for MSMEs Survival Fund Scheme.

Amb. Mariam Yalwaji Katagum, Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, made this commitment when a delegation of the Federation of Women Associations in Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (FEDWIM) led by its National Coordinator, Mrs. Anne Ugbo, paid her a courtesy visit in Abuja.

A statement on Friday by Mrs. Oluwakemi Ogunmakinwa, Assistant Director, Information in the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment quoted the minister to have said that Nigerian women entrepreneurs, through their ingenuity have always contributed their quota to national economy and therefore needed to be encouraged for enhanced contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Katagum reaffirmed that Nigerian women formed a very important constituent of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration.Katagum reaffirmed that Nigerian women formed a very important constituent of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration.

She reiterated that women-owned businesses were allocated 45 per cent and five per cent for those with special needs in the Federal Government’s MSMEs Survival Fund Scheme to cushion the effects of COVID-19 pandemic on their businesses.

According to the Minister, “The Federal Government clearly understands the place of women in economic development of our nation and that is why this Ministry is doing everything possible to support them.

Among other initiatives, the Federal Government has also flagged off is the N50billion Export Expansion Facility Programme (EEFP) on non-oil export businesses thereby safeguarding jobs and creating new jobs.

“I use this medium to encourage more women to apply and we also urge associations to mobilise and sensitise their members,” she said.

Katagum commended the association for the achievements recorded so far and advised the delegation of FEDWIN to formally write to the Ministry, indicating areas of collaboration.

Earlier in her address, the National Coordinator, Federation of Women Associations in Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (FEDWIM) Mrs. Anne Ugbo said the association was in the ministry to brief the Minister about its programmes and to solicit support for its members across the 36 states, including the Federal Capital Territory.

She commended the Minister of State for her motherly commitment to the well-being of the Nigerian women through her contributions to the growth of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).

She stated that “FEDWIM is established to serve as a platform to create synergy among all women economic empowerment focused groups to provide a single mechanism for coordinated engagement with government and other stakeholders.

“This would engender effective supervision and monitoring of participation in the implementation of programmes and feedback for appropriate policy formulation and decision making on matters of economic empowerment and financial inclusion of women.

“This would fast track the development and competitiveness of the MSME sector, especially for women who are faced with challenges of poor access to affordable finance, appropriate technology and other challenges”.

The National Coordinator said the association was currently mobilising 50,000 women across sectors and levels of operations to participate in the ongoing process of accessing the Agribusiness and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Investment Scheme (AGSMEIS) loan.

SOURCE

246,000 Youths to Benefit from FG’s N75bn Youth Fund

April 24, 2021

by esme1 with No Comment finance News

There are indications that only about 246,000 Nigerian youths may eventually benefit from the Federal Government’s Nigeria Youth Investment Fund, NYIF, at end of the disbursement programe this year.

The NYIF was part of the COVID-19 stimulus package of the Federal Government last year aimed at getting the economy rescued from the set-backs of the pandemic by engaging the young people in productive ventures.

So far only 41,000 out of over three million applicants has been covered and about N12.5 billion has been disbursed. The government intends to disburse N75 billion under the scheme before end of this year.

The beneficiaries received about N300,000 each but some of them were angry that the amount was far bellow their expectations and the purpose for which they needed the fund.

One of the beneficiaries told our correspondent that he was surprised that he got only N300,000 when he actually applied for N3.0 million, which he said was the cost of his poultry business expansion as contained in the business plan he submitted.

He lamented that the development would force him to continue looking for more funding which may delay his expansion while jeopardizing his loan repayment plans.

He also confirmed that a lot of his friends that applied did not succeed while a few that succeeded also got N300,000.

But the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development appears to be disappointed at some of the beneficiaries who condemned the amount they received as the scheme actually pegged maximum amount for individual beneficiaries at N250,000, meaning that over 20 percent enhancement was actually made.

In a statement earlier in the week the Ministry said the disbursement of the Fund is being done in phases.

A statement signed by the Director of Press explained that the ministry had received over three million applications for the initial N12.5billion made available.

It said at the current cap of N300,000 per beneficiary, only about 41,000 beneficiaries could be covered.

According to the ministry, it had limited the loans to the current amount so as to reach as many beneficiaries as possible.

The statement read in part, “The Ministry of Youth and Sports Development has been following with interest the reaction of some beneficiaries of the NYIF, particularly those expressing disappointment at the N300,000 cap on disbursement under the first tranche of N12.5billion.

“Firstly, the framework specified N250,000 as the maximum for individual and eligible businesses that are critical can access up toN3m subject to meeting key criteria set in the guideline and conditions.

Charting A New Course for Venture Capitals and Early-Stage Funding

April 23, 2021

by EnuguSME with No Comment finance

How do you build successful businesses? The short answer is it’s hard. Yet from the outside, many assume investing and building successful startups is a pretty straightforward activity. Their thinking: money conquers all challenges, and nobody is more flushed with cash than Venture Capitals VCs.

READ ALSO: KWIRS generated N9.5bn n Q1

They assume that once VCs identify the companies building innovative products, they’ll simply throw money at them and let them work. In the future, if the company is a success, think IPO or Paystack-Stripe acquisition, the VC walks away with a decent return despite adding minimal value to the growth timeline.

But many times, this never happens. There’s a higher chance that a startup will fail than it getting any traction at all. And startups fail all the time; it’s just the nature of the business world. According to Fortune Magazine, nine out of 10 startups fail. That’s why some investors use the “spray-and-pray” model of investing to increase their chances of cashing out with that golden startup that saves the rest of their portfolio.

In recent years, more investors and firms are harkening on to an old truth. Maybe money is not the single most important thing companies need. Perhaps they need other kinds of support to build high-growth ventures even at the early stages? What if an investor could do more than just dole out money to help a young company make it to the finish line?

This is a reality many investors may need to accept. They must be ready to roll up their sleeves and help portfolio companies execute, especially at the early stages. To do this effectively, more VC firms should, and indeed a few are creating something called venture builders.

A venture builder, sometimes called an incubator, a startup studio, or venture studio, is an organisation that develops new companies or startup ideas and dedicates resources and teams to nurture the product until maturity.

Venture builders take different forms. But two models stand out, with the major difference between them being the origin of the idea.

In the first model, venture builders are out chasing innovative startups for investments. The goal is to tap into a wide variety of ideas from entrepreneurs, pick winners, and help them grow their businesses leveraging the builder’s in-house resources. This model overlaps with traditional VC investing, but the difference is the investor’s level of involvement.

However, the second model is slightly more popular. Here the venture builder conceives the idea for a startup or a bunch of ideas in-house and then assembles a team to execute these ideas while supporting them with much-needed resources, expertise, infrastructure and network.

One familiar venture builder is Rocket Internet, which has incubated many startups, including publicly traded food delivery company, HelloFresh and Jumia Group, the Pan-African retailer and its basket of marketplace services. Other notable venture builders include Founders Factory, a startup studio that has built over 35 companies from scratch and GreenTec. There are also famous examples of corporate organisations deploying the venture builder model. One organisation is Opera which housed OPay for a few months in 2018. Alphabet, the parent company of search engine, Google has also deployed significant resources on moonshot projects, including Waymo, the driverless car startup.

But the venture builder approach isn’t without its drawbacks, and it does receive a fair amount of criticism. For one thing, they seem expensive and may not necessarily be the best use of financial and human resources for venture firms—many of which tend to have lean teams focused on deal-making and due diligence.

A good way to get around this criticism is to limit the number of startups entering their portfolio. Unlike accelerator programs and Venture Capitals that tend to back dozens or even hundreds of startups each year, venture builders are most optimal if they support a few companies annually. Three to five is fair enough to ensure the builder provides the best value with the resources they render.

The venture builder model certainly offers merits for early-stage innovation. One notable rationale is they test and validate ideas quickly in-house. After all, according to CB Insights, 42% of startups fail when due to a lack of product-market-fit. Venture builders engage in few core activities: business ideation, building teams, capital allocation and team operations. Each of these activities is key. And like regular startups, builders must prioritise similar growth development models such as prototyping and leveraging design thinking and agile process management. Execution and speed are equally crucial to the venture building model to validate ideas and scale quickly.

These resources aren’t cheap. Venture Capitals builders typically invest seed-stage funding in new ideas in return for a significant chunk of equity or a majority. This makes sense and could return many multiples during exits.

Beyond financial resources and access to quality networks, one crucial benefit of venture builders is they’re not shy to provide the much-needed human capital to develop and scale ideas. Talent is key to startup development, but acquiring the right talent can sometimes be expensive and time-consuming, both of which would affect startup execution timelines. CB Insights data shows 23% of startups fail because they assembled the wrong team. Venture builders reduce this challenge with their pool of skilled and experienced teams spread across various incubated startups. They also have the resources and appeal to attract top talent to scale startups to maturity.

As the new startup gains traction, venture builders should spin off the company, allowing it to grow independently and attract follow-on funding from external investors. Like regular Venture Capitals investments, venture builders can exit portfolio companies through secondary sales of equity, a stock market listing or mergers and acquisitions.

FBNQuest Recommends Commercial Papers and Bonds as Stable Funding Sources for SMEs and Corporates

April 21, 2021

by EnuguSME with No Comment Business finance

FBNQuest Merchant Bank, the investment banking and asset management group of FBN Holdings Plc, is recommending commercial papers and bonds to corporate issuers seeking to raise working capital, expansion capital, refinance expensive debt and better match their cash obligations with revenues.

Speaking at the latest edition of the”Leading Conversations with FBNQuest” webinar series, Oluseun Olatidoye, Head Capital Markets, FBNQuest, noted that many companies do not take advantage of Nigeria’s growing commercial paper and bond market to access stable funds that match their capital needs.

“Even though interest rates have trended higher in the first quarter of this year, there is still significant scope for many companies to access cheaper and more stable funding from investors who are seeking well-run businesses with predictable cashflows to invest in” said Olatidoye.

The webinar with the theme ‘Funding through Commercial Papers and Bonds’ was hosted to engage corporates and investors on the opportunities within issuing and investing in commercial papers and bonds.

Other speakers included Sumit Jain, Senior Executive Director at Valency International, a leading food ingredient supply chain company. He echoed the sentiment about the benefits of issuing commercial papers.

“We believe that corporates can lower the interest paid on bank debts by up to 4 percentage points by issuing commercial papers. Loans also offer other tremendous benefits in the current macroeconomic environment” said Sumit Jain.

Nigeria’s capital market has recorded a flurry of corporate commercial papers and bond issues since a sharp decline in interest rates in the third quarter of 2020. “We think the market conditions have just cast the spotlight on a financing option that discerning companies should consider.

We look forward to working with our clients to navigate the process to issuing CPs and bonds and therefore unlocking the efficiency and convenience that these instruments offer” stated Olatidoye.

As a leading investment banking institution, FBNQuest has advised on the issuance of several commercial papers transactions for organisations such as Valency Agro Nigeria Limited, Mixta Real Estate plc, Dangote Cement plc, Nigerian Breweries plc (NB), Lafarge Africa plc, Flour Mills of Nigeria plc (FMN), Wema Bank plc, and UACN Property Development Company plc (UPDC) to mention a few.

These transactions add to the organisations impressive portfolio of organisations it has supported, and once again highlights its capabilities in the successful execution of sizeable capital market and commercial debt transactions.

IMF Predicts 2.4% Economic Growth For Nigeria In 2021

April 7, 2021

by EnuguSME with No Comment Business

Following a revised contraction of 4.3 percent in 2020, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected that Nigeria’s economy will grow by 2.4 percent in 2021.

The new projection is contained in the April 2021 World Economic Outlook (WEO) presented Tuesday in Washington D.C. by Gita Gopinath, the fund’s Chief Economist at the ongoing IMF/World Bank Spring Meetings which began on Monday and scheduled to end Sunday.

The Fund which also projected six percent growth for the global economy in 2021, moderating to 4.4 percent in 2022, estimated the growth for Sub-Saharan Africa, at 3.4 percent, with South Africa at 3.1 percent. .The new global projection came after an estimated contraction of –3.3 percent in 2020.

The IMF had in its World Economic Outlook report for October 2020 gave a revised contraction of 4.3 percent for Nigeria after its April projection of a 3.4 percent contraction of the economy. It also predicted a 5.4 percent contraction in June while it projected that the economy would recover by 1.7 percent in 2021.

Last year report also projected 2020 global growth to contract by 4.4 percent, a less severe contraction than forecast in the June 2020 World Economic Outlook Update.

However, in its latest report released Tuesday, the Fund said that the contraction for 2020 was 1.1 percentage points smaller than projected in the October 2020 WEO.

This, it said reflected the higher-than-expected growth outturns in the second half of the year for most regions after lockdowns were eased and as economies adapted to new ways of working.

“The projections for 2021 and 2022 are 0.8 percentage point and 0.2 percentage point stronger than in the October 2020 WEO, reflecting additional fiscal support in a few large economies and the anticipated vaccine-powered recovery in the second half of the year.

“Global growth is expected to moderate to 3.3 percent over the medium term, reflecting projected damage to supply potential and forces that predate the pandemic, including ageing-related slower labour force growth in advanced economies and some emerging market economies.

“Thanks to unprecedented policy response, the COVID-19 recession is likely to leave smaller scars than the 2008 global financial crisis.”

The United States of America is expected to grow by 6.4 percent and China by 8.4 percent in 2021 according to the report that noted that emerging market economies and low-income developing countries were harder hit and were expected to suffer more significant medium-term losses.

The IMF said that there were divergent impacts with output losses particularly large for countries that relied on tourism and commodity exports and for those with limited policy space to respond.

It added that many of the countries entered the crisis in a precarious fiscal situation and with less capacity to mount major health care policy responses or support livelihoods.

According to the report, the projected recovery follows a severe contraction that has had particular adverse employment and earnings impacts on certain groups.

The IMF said youth, women, workers with relatively lower educational attainment and the informally employed had generally been hit hardest and income inequality was likely to increase significantly because of the pandemic.

“Close to 95 million more people are estimated to have fallen below the threshold of extreme poverty in 2020 compared with pre-pandemic projections.

“Moreover, learning losses have been more severe in low-income and developing countries, which have found it harder to cope with school closures and especially for girls and students from low-income households.

“Unequal setbacks to schooling could further amplify income inequality.”

Gopinath said that once the health crisis was over, policy efforts could focus more on building resilient, inclusive and greener economies, both to bolster the recovery and to raise potential output.

She also said that priorities should include investing in green infrastructure to help mitigate climate change, strengthen social assistance and social insurance to arrest rising inequality.

Also, introduce initiatives to boost production capacity and adapt to a more digitalised economy and resolve debt overhangs.

She added that policymakers should continue to ensure adequate access to international liquidity.

According to Gopinath, major central banks should provide clear guidance on future actions with ample time to prepare to avoid taper-tantrum kinds of episodes as occurred in 2013.

“Low-income countries will benefit from further extending the temporary pause on debt repayments under the Debt Service Suspension Initiative and operationalising the G20 Common Framework for orderly debt restructuring.

“Emerging markets and low-income countries will benefit from a new allocation of the IMF’s special drawing rights and through pre-emptively availing themselves of the IMF’s precautionary financing lines, such as the Flexible Credit Line and the Short-Term Liquidity Line.

FG disburses MSME Survival Fund to tailors

March 30, 2021

by EnuguSME with No Comment Business finance

The Federal Government has commenced the disbursement of its Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises, MSME, Survival Fund to tailors, artisans in Lagos State.

The Special Assistant to the President on MSMEs/DFIs, Tola Johnson, said so far in the Bariga cluster alone, over 400 people had benefitted from the scheme, with11other clusters approved last week.

Johnson stated this at the activation of the Artisan Scheme of the MSME Survival Fund by the Bank of Industry in Bariga area of Lagos on Thursday.

He explained that the fund was created to cushion the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on small businesses in the country, reaffirming the Federal Government’s commitment to supporting MSMEs.

He said, “It is no news that the pandemic affected many businesses and the government in its wisdom thought about how it could support different clusters of people. We have people for the payroll support, the artisan and the transport sectors.

“We also have people that we give money to cushion the effect of the pandemic on their businesses. The Federal Government resolved to support 500,000 people every month for three months, while also supporting 303,000 artisans with N30,000 one-off grant and N50,000 to about 100,000 businesses that have been affected by the pandemic.”

According to him, the government will carry out monitoring and evaluation of the fund to ensure that it is disbursed judiciously.

Johnson added, “We are carrying out this programme in phases so that we can learn from the mistakes of the first and correct in the second stream. We are actually trying to monitor to a large extent to ensure that what was approved is what is being done.”

He said a second stream of states was waiting for approval for disbursement.

“For the payroll segment, we will let the public know when we want to commence disbursement. Every state has about 6,600 new business names to be registered for free, but the Federal Government is paying N6, 000 per business to the Corporate Affairs Commission.

The Chairman, National Union of Tailors, Bariga Chapter, Balogun Olatunde, commended the government for supporting small businesses and urged the government to do more.

He said most of the tailors under his jurisdiction were looking for loans to expand their businesses.

SOURCE LINK

Registration for FG’s MSME survival fund to open Monday

March 26, 2021

by EnuguSME with No Comment Business finance

The federal government has announced that registration for the N75 billion survival fund for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) will begin on Monday, September 21.

Mariam Katagum, minister of state for industry, trade and investment, said the programme is aimed at tackling the economic challenges faced by small businesses as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.

Katagum was speaking at the virtual commissioning of the fashion cluster shared facility for MSMEs tagged ‘Eko Fashion Hub’ in Lagos on Friday.

Katagum explained that the programme, which would run for an initial duration of three months, would be opened for 1 .7 million entities and individuals across the country.

“The federal government is fully committed to empowering Nigerians; more so in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic,” she said.

“In this regard, the government, through the economic sustainability committee had announced specific programmes aimed at cushioning the impact of COVID-19 on MSME businesses.

“These programmes include among others, the N75 billion MSME survival fund and Guaranteed Off-take schemes of which I have the honour to chair the steering committee for the effective implementation of the projects.

“The project, which will run for an initial period of three months, is targeting 1.7 million entities and individuals and has provisions for 45 percent female-owned businesses and five per cent for those with special needs.”

SOURCE

CardinalStone’s West Africa SME Fund Closes at $64M

March 25, 2021

by EnuguSME with No Comment Business finance

Lagos-based private equity fund manager CardinalStone Capital Advisers (CCA) has announced the final close of its maiden private equity fund, the CardinalStone Capital Advisers Growth Fund LP (CCAGF ) at US$64 million.

The CCAGF is a generalist fund that makes equity investments of $5 million–$10 million in high-growth SMEs operating across a range of sectors including industrials, agribusiness, consumer goods and services, education, healthcare, and financial services.

CCAGF investors, which are a mix of commercial and development finance institutions include Kuramo Capital, the UK Government’s CDC Group, FMO – the Dutch Entrepreneurial Development Bank, the International Finance Corporation (IFC, part of the World Bank Group), the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) and a number of high-net-worth individuals.

The Fund, which recorded its first close in December 2018 and final close in September 2020, was established to support the growth and institutionalisation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in two of West Africa’s leading economies – Nigeria and Ghana.

Private equity companies raise and manage funds that are invested in different sectors. The first step in raising funding is announcing and marketing the funding to potential investors. The initial closing refers to the period within which the first set of investors commit to putting money in the fund while the final close refers to when the last set of investors have committed to investing in the fund.

The CardinalStone Fund has invested in two businesses, iFitness Center Limited and AppZone Group Limited, and plans to invest in another 6-7 companies over the next 2 years.

iFitness, a Nigeria-based fitness chain, operates with a mission of improving the overall health and well-being of the average Nigerian by providing high-quality, yet affordable fitness offerings. Meanwhile, the fintech solutions provider, AppZone, provides a bouquet of financial services offerings.

Flutterwave Closes USD $170m Funding

March 10, 2021

by EnuguSME with No Comment finance News

Flutterwave, Africa’s leading payments technology company, today announces it has secured USD $170 million from a leading group of international investors as part of a successful Series C round.

The round was led by growth-equity firms Avenir Growth Capital (“Avenir”) and Tiger Global Management LLC (“Tiger Global”) with participation from new and existing investors.

Founded by entrepreneur Olugbenga Agboola in 2016, the company’s valuation is considered to be valued at more than USD $1 billion.

The fundraise brings the total investment in Flutterwave to USD $225 million and is one of only a very small number of African fintech companies to have raised significant funds in a period of widespread disruption and economic uncertainty.

The new funds will allow Flutterwave to execute an ambitious growth strategy to become a leading global payments company, empowering SMEs and multinational brands by connecting the highly fragmented African digital payments landscape. Flutterwave will invest the new capital to accelerate customer acquisition in existing and international markets, as well as develop complementary and innovative products such as the newly launched Flutterwave Mobile, an app to help accelerate ecommerce growth as a result of the success of the Flutterwave Stores.

This fundraise comes at a time when Covid-19 has accelerated the shift to digital payments in Africa, which has contributed to Flutterwave’s exceptional revenue growth of 226% CAGR from 2018-2020.

Olugbenga ‘GB’ Agboola, Founder and CEO of Flutterwave, said: “When Flutterwave was founded in 2016, the payments landscape in Africa was highly fragmented so the goal was to build a pan-African platform that simplified payments for everyone. However our successes would not be possible without (1) Our amazing team of 300+ employees that work tirelessly to achieve our goals (2) The trust and support we have received from our investors and customers and (3) Regulatory bodies like the Central Bank of Nigeria which – under the leadership of the current Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele – has remained at the forefront of the significant efforts that are currently being made by African governments to create the enabling environment for technology, innovation and financial inclusion. This humbling support has created the backbone upon which companies like Flutterwave have been able to thrive.”

As we look to the future, our focus remains the same which is to stand by our 290,000 merchants across Africa every day as they strive to build their mom-and-pop stores into global businesses. We look forward to increasing our investments across the continent and deepening the impact our platform has on lives and livelihoods as we take more businesses in Africa to the World, and at the same time continue to bring more of the World to Africa.”

Jamie Reynolds, Partner at Avenir Growth Capital, commented: “Flutterwave is at the forefront of innovation in payments technology, and we are excited to support the team as they build the last available payments infrastructure frontier in the world – connecting merchants and consumers intra-Africa and globally.”

Scott Shleifer, Partner at Tiger Global Management LLC, added: “We are excited to partner with Flutterwave as they continue building a world-class payments platform. We were impressed by Flutterwave’s focus on customer success and believe the company is well-positioned for sustainable long-term growth.”

This latest funding round was led by Avenir and Tiger Global with participation from DST Global, Early Capital Berrywood, Green Visor Capital, Greycroft Capital, Insight Ventures, PayPal, Salesforce Ventures, Tiger Management, WorldpayFIS, and 9yards Capital. Avenir and Tiger Global have funded some of the brightest tech start-ups in the world including Current, Latch, Savage x Fenty, JD.com and Facebook.

Flutterwave was founded with the mission to create endless possibilities for customers and businesses in Africa and the emerging markets. It enables its customers to build customisable payment applications through its APIs. Flutterwave’s Series C fundraise comes on the back of an impressive run of 4 years in which Flutterwave reached over 290,000 merchants and over 500,000 registered Barter users, launched a range of new products and partnerships and expanded its infrastructure into over 33 countries.

SUNREF invites operators to tap $81m funding

March 9, 2021

by EnuguSME with No Comment finance News

SUNREF invites operators to tap $81m funding for off-grid projects

The Sustainable Use of Natural Resources and Energy Finance (SUNREF), a green financing line for businesses developed by the French Development Agency (AFD) is encouraging manufacturers to take advantage of the SUNREF funding facility.

The organisation in a virtual investors conference it hosted along with the Manufacturing Association of Nigeria (MAN) said that its SUNREF funding facility, which is composed of a €60 million ($70 million) lowcost debt financing, a €9.5 million ($11 million) grant facility and technical assistance provided to partner banks and project developers, will help to deepen Nigeria’s energy access.

The conference, which was hosted in partnership with development partners, the Nigerian Energy Support Program (NESP) implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and off-grid renewable
energy investor All-On, brought together investors, SUNREF Nigeria partner banks (Access Bank and UBA), technical assistance providers, renewable energy and energy efficiency project developers, government agencies and other stakeholders.

“The SUNREF facility has come at the right time when manufacturers need more power to drive our operations. We are excited about it as potential beneficiaries and we hope that both our members and non-members will take full advantage of this opportunity,” said MansurAhmed, the MAN President.

In his remarks, Wiebe Boer, CEO All-On, an investment firm, highlighted the huge market potentials in the renewable energy and energy sectors in Nigeria.

“The size of the energy gap in Nigeria is between 30GW and 175GW, and would cost between $40 billion to $200 billion to address. Nigerians spend $15 to $20 billion annually on power, which is ten times the grid,” said Boer.

“This is also a market opportunity for providers of constant, reliable electricity, such as mini-grids which are a potentially $10 billion market.”

In his remarks, Wiebe Boer, CEO All-On, an investment firm, highlighted the huge market potentials in the renewable energy and energy sectors in Nigeria.

“This is also a market opportunity for providers of constant, reliable electricity, such as mini-grids which are a potentially $10 billion market.”

Enugu SME Centre

Posts tagged: funds

FG Urges Women Entrepreneurs To Apply For MSMEs Survival Fund Scheme

246,000 Youths to Benefit from FG’s N75bn Youth Fund

Charting A New Course for Venture Capitals and Early-Stage Funding

FBNQuest Recommends Commercial Papers and Bonds as Stable Funding Sources for SMEs and Corporates

IMF Predicts 2.4% Economic Growth For Nigeria In 2021

FG disburses MSME Survival Fund to tailors

Registration for FG’s MSME survival fund to open Monday

CardinalStone’s West Africa SME Fund Closes at $64M

Flutterwave Closes USD $170m Funding

SUNREF invites operators to tap $81m funding

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