Nigeria‘s Rising Tide Africa will set up a platform to steer local private capital into women-led small businesses after FSD Africa committed $335,000 to the project, the development finance agency said on Oct. 28.
The RiTA Investment Network aims to raise $2.7 million, about ₦3.75 billion, from Nigerian high-net-worth individuals, angel investors and family offices over three years and invest it in 15 small and growing women-led businesses across the country, according to FSD Africa. The funding comes from the UK government through the British High Commission in Nigeria.
What to know:
- FSD Africa’s $335,000 will cover the network’s team, legal structure, governance and systems for its first three years, until it can cover costs from fees.
- The network aims to mobilise about $8 of Nigerian private capital for every $1 of FSD Africa funding, and has around $1.5 million in soft commitments from Rising Tide Africa members.
- Finance will mainly be revenue-based, with repayments that rise and fall with a business’s sales.
Nigerian small businesses face a financing shortfall of about ₦13 trillion (about $9.4 billion), with 19 in 20 unable to obtain formal finance, according to International Finance Corporation estimates cited by FSD Africa. Women own about 40% of the country’s small businesses and are rejected for credit at more than three times the rate of men, the agency said, often because they lack land or other assets that banks require as collateral.
“Nigeria does not lack capital,” said Juliet Munro, FSD Africa’s director for early-stage finance. “The RiTA Investment Network gives that capital the structure and instrument to grow, in Naira, and at scale.”
Much of the growth capital available to African businesses is in dollars, which raises repayment costs for companies earning in naira whenever the currency weakens, according to FSD Africa. Nigeria holds substantial private wealth that could finance these businesses in local currency, though few channels connect it to smaller companies, the agency said.
Rising Tide Africa, founded in 2016, has 122 members who are senior women investors based in seven countries, and has backed 39 early-stage companies in sectors including fintech, healthtech, agritech and climate. The new network will formalise that activity with professional credit assessment, an investment committee, an advisory board and monitoring and reporting systems, according to the announcement. Investors will choose which businesses to back, one transaction at a time.
The network completed its first transaction in September, a syndicated corporate note to Ororo Waste Management Ltd., and two more businesses are in structuring and due diligence, FSD Africa said.
“Women led businesses in Nigeria are growing, and they need lenders who understand how they work,” said Yemi Keri, a general partner and spokesperson for the network. “FSD Africa’s support lets us build the structure, the discipline and the data to do this at scale.”
The network is intended to build a track record for a planned $10 million naira-denominated growth debt fund for women-led businesses that would bring in institutional investors, according to FSD Africa. Rising Tide Africa will also publish a legal template for investing under the Investments and Securities Act 2025, a playbook for revenue-based finance in naira and credit performance data on women-led businesses for use by other first-time fund managers in Nigeria.
Paul Healey, head of green growth and private sector development at the British High Commission, said the initiative is part of the UK government’s wider support for access to finance for small and growing businesses in Nigeria.
What to watch:
- Conversion of the roughly $1.5 million in soft commitments toward the network’s $2.7 million target.
- Completion of the two transactions now in due diligence, following the Ororo Waste Management note.
- Progress toward the planned $10 million naira-denominated growth debt fund and the entry of institutional investors.