Press release -
Swedfund invests in digital payment solutions in Nigeria, boosting MSME growth
Swedfund invests USD 10 million in Nigerian company Moniepoint, Africa’s fastest growing fintech company, to accelerate access to banking and digital payment solutions for Nigeria’s underbanked Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).
MSMEs are the backbone of Nigeria’s economy, driving job creation and rural industrialisation, and fostering innovation across multiple sectors. As a key contributor to national development, the growth of this segment is vital.
- In a country with a large and youthful population, where unemployment often leads individuals to start informal businesses, empowering MSMEs has the potential to shift socio-economic dynamics. By facilitating their operations, we can help unlock opportunities for innovation, income growth, and improved livelihoods, says Helen Hagos, Senior Investment Manager and Lead of Fund Co-Investments at Swedfund.
Moniepoint has over four million business users and plays an important role in enabling the success of MSMEs through tailored and user-friendly financial products and services - both online and offline, and delivered via an extensive local distribution network. This model supports business growth and financial inclusion, not least for women, and thereby stimulates local job creation and income generation.
- Beyond expanding employment, our investment aims to enhance job quality through capacity building and the integration of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles - including the promotion of decent work standards. These improvements are anticipated to cascade throughout Moniepoint’s distribution network, further accelerating positive impact, says Helen Hagos.
Swedfund invests USD 10 million in equity, alongside one of Africa’s leading Private Equity Firms, DPI, and among others Development Finance Institutions IFC and Proparco.
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About Swedfund
Swedfund is Sweden’s development finance institution with the mission to reduce poverty through sustainable investments in developing countries. Swedfund plays an important role in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement on climate. Swedfund shares the same goal as development cooperation in general, but the tools Swedfund uses are different. Swedfund has two instruments to fulfil its mission: sustainable investments in the private sector and technical feasibility studies through the Project Accelerator targeting the public sector.
Swedfund's investments contribute to the creation of decent jobs and increased access to essential products and services such as electricity and food. Swedfund is a long-term investor and is additional and catalytic through its investments and by mobilising private capital. Swedfund's feasibility studies support sustainable public infrastructure development, trade, and export opportunities for Swedish solutions.
We are part of Swedish development cooperation, and we measure and report all our results. As a state-owned company, Swedfund is managed by the Ministry of Finance and financed through portfolio reflows and annual capital injections for which the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs is responsible.
For more information: please visit www.swedfund.se/en
