Our investment
Verod Fund III will provide growth capital and value add to SMEs primarily in Nigeria and Ghana, thereby improving their productivity and job creation. This will help increase labour markets absorption capacity in the formal sector in a context of accelerating demographic growth in Anglophone West Africa.
| Impact |
|---|
Promote economic opportunities by creating jobs (SDG targets 8.5, 9.3) |
|
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| How? |
|---|
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CDC's commitment will support Verod III to provide capital and value add to up to twelve SMEs in Anglophone West Africa, supporting the SMEs' growth and direct employment creation. |
| Stakeholder | Geography | Characteristics |
|---|---|---|
| Employees |
West Africa (Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra, Leone and the Gambia) |
Primarily low-income and middle-income. |
| Grid Score | Contribution |
|---|---|
|
2.9-3.1
To help us direct our investments, we use a tool called the Development Impact Grid. The Grid scores every investment we plan out of a score of four, based on two factors: the difficulty of investing in the country and whether investment in that sector will lead to jobs. |
|
| Risk |
|---|
|
Execution: The impact case relies on the fund's ability to deliver investee growth which would result in employment creation. |
Expected impact
The fund will provide growth capital and value add to SMEs primarily in Nigeria and Ghana, thereby improving their productivity and job creation. This will help increase labour markets absorption capacity in a context of accelerating demographic growth while improving the local workforce’s access to enhanced employment conditions in Anglophone West Africa.
Environmental and social aspects
We are working closely with the fund manager to improve its existing environmental and social management system (ESMS), including delivering an action plan.
Key facts
- Status:
- Active
- Region
:
Since 2012, we’ve only invested in Africa and South Asia. Investments outside these regions are from our pre-2012 portfolio.
- Africa, West Africa
- Sector
:
We have seven priority sectors. However, we continue to invest outside these sectors, largely in the most challenging regions, as new investment supporting any sector helps to underpin the private sector, and create jobs and livelihoods for people. For funds, the sectors listed here are those the fund has invested in so far.
- Financial services, Other consumer services
- Investment type
:
We provide capital in three broad ways: direct equity, debt, and intermediated equity (principally through investment funds).
- Intermediated investment
- Fund manager:
- Verod Capital Management Limited
- Start date
:
For direct investments, this is the date CDC committed capital to the business or project.
For funds, this is the date that CDC committed capital to the fund.
For underlying fund investments, this is the date that the fund invested capital into the business.e
- March 2019
- Amount
:
For direct investments, this is the total amount that CDC has committed to the business or project (it may be a combination of equity and debt).
For funds, this is the total amount that CDC has committed to the fund.
- $20m
- Domicile
:
This is the investee company’s place of incorporation; or a fund’s jurisdiction.
- Mauritius
Investments made by this fund
- Active
- Exited
| Investment name | Country | Region | Sector | Start date | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
DTRT Apparel Ltd
Do The Right Thing (DTRT) is a social impact clothing manufacturing company in Ghana. |
Ghana | Africa, West Africa | Other consumer services | June 2019 | Active |
| Project Coin | Nigeria | Africa, West Africa | Financial services | July 2020 | Active |
| Tangerine General Insurance Limited | Nigeria | Africa, West Africa | Financial services | September 2020 | Active |
