February 22, 2022
Female-led businesses and SMEs in Nigeria will receive USD 100 million from the UK’s development finance body, which has also opened a new office in Ghana.
CDC Group, the United Kingdom’s development finance institution (DFI) will provide support to female-owned and led businesses, and start-ups through a USD 100 million finance facility to First Bank of Nigeria (FirstBank).
Female led businesses will receive a minimum USD 30 million from the finance facility, while the rest will go to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), a crucial sector when it comes to diversifying economies such as Nigeria’s, which are traditionally reliant on natural resources.
The partnership will also allow for the creation of a technical assistance programme which will offer training and education to female-led businesses.
CDC is due to rebrand as British International Investment from 4 April. Chief executive Nick O’Donohoe said in a statement that “promoting financial inclusion is a key component for advancing sweeping productive and sustainable growth across both rural and urban areas in Nigeria”.
“This facility will channel CDC’s flexible and long-term capital toward expanding the financial solutions made available to women entrepreneurs, who are often the drivers of small business ideas and services to their communities,” he added.
FirstBank chief executive and managing director Adesola Adeduntan said the partnership was in line with the United Nations’ sustainable development goals, continuing: “Enabling financial inclusion for SMEs has been a strategic priority for FirstBank over the last 128 years. Similarly, FirstBank has been at the forefront of financially empowering women-owned and women-led businesses on the continent.”
A fintech takeover last October targeted the growing Nigerian SME economy, while in December there was African Development Bank (AfDB) backing for digital and creative start-ups in Nigeria.
At last month’s UK-Africa Investment Conference, CDC announced that it had exceeded its planned GBP 2 billion investment in the continent, while Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised a “green industrial revolution”.
European and African leaders met in Brussels for a summit last week, promising greater cooperation on political, social and economic issues.
COMMITMENT TO GHANA
CDC opened in Ghana on 1 February, hiring Kwabena Asante-Poku from PwC as its country coverage director.
The DFI currently has investments in 43 Ghanaian businesses, and Asante-Poku’s role will be to build ties with the local business community. The country scored well on the African Financial Markets Index, published in October last year by Absa and OMFIF, thanks to its strong contractual framework and ability to consolidate economically when other countries were declining.
He described it as “a critical juncture in Ghana’s development trajectory”, explaining: “Ghana’s projected GDP growth of 4.4%, the fastest since the pandemic began, signifies a dynamic market brimming with diverse businesses and industries that are open for investment.”
Managing director for Africa Tenbite Ermias said the hire “will allow us to heighten our presence in the West African region and execute our strategic objective of investing for productive, sustainable and inclusive growth”.
Asante-Poku spent 14 years with PwC in Lagos and Accra, advising on transactions, after previously working for Unilever Ghana as an accountant.
