Nigeria launches $15m ICT venture capital fund

Abuja (WorldStage Newsonline)– The Federal Government of Nigeria on Tuesday announced the setting up of a $15 million ICT venture capital fund for the development of the ICT sector in the country.

Minister of Communication Technology, Mrs Omobola Johnson, disclosed this to State House correspondents after presentation of the budget performance of her ministry to President Goodluck Jonathan at the State House.

According to Mrs. Johnson, the fund which would be largely private driven will be used to finance commercially viable projects, ideas and initiatives in the ICT sector.

She noted that the Nigeria Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) would anchor the fund and contribute about 3.6 million Dollars to the fund while the balance of 11.4 million Dollars, would be sourced from local and international investors.

“The fund will be managed by independent fund managers who would, working with the ICT incubation team will identify projects or initiative that we believe are great ideas that will be commercially successful,” she said.

“We will use those Venice capital fund to fund them because there is no collateral we are taking a risk.

“We use those capital development fund to fund the development of those ideas until they get a commercial viability.

“Basically the reward is when they get a commercial viability and you sell them off or you do an Initial Public Offer (IPO) like they do with facebook and all those companies where the returns go to the investors in to the fund.

“The fund is initially $15million and as we get more successful we will raise additional money.’’

source: http://www.worldstagegroup.com/