UK, FSD Africa commit $335,000 to unlock investment for women-led businesses in Nigeria

Spread the word FSD Africa, with funding from the UK Government through the British High Commission in Nigeria, has committed US$335,000 (approximately £247,000) to establish the RiTA Investment Network, a new platform designed to increase investment in women-led businesses in Nigeria.

The platform, established by Rising Tide Africa, a women-led, pan-African network of angel investors, aims to mobilise US$2.7 million (approximately N3.75 billion) from Nigerian investors, including high-net-worth individuals, angel investors and family offices, over the next three years.

The investment will target 15 small and growing women-led businesses across Nigeria, helping them access the capital they need to expand.

The commitment was announced on Wednesday, in Lagos.

According to the organisers, Nigeria’s small and growing businesses are an important part of the economy, but many struggle to access finance to grow. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) estimates that Nigeria’s small businesses face a financing gap of around N13 trillion, with 19 in 20 unable to access formal finance.

“The challenge is particularly acute for women entrepreneurs, who own around 40% of Nigeria’s small businesses but are rejected for credit at more than three times the rate of men.

“For many women, the barrier is not their ability to build successful businesses or repay loans, but lack of assets, such as land, that banks traditionally require as security,” they said.

Speaking while announcing the investment, Head of Green Growth and Private Sector Development at the British High Commission, Paul Healey, said the initiative forms part of the UK Government’s broader support to expand access to finance for promising small and growing businesses.

He said: “Women entrepreneurs are building successful businesses across Nigeria, but many still face barriers to accessing the investment they need to grow. This partnership between the UK Government, FSD Africa and Rising Tide Africa is changing that.

“Together, we are building stronger connections between women-led businesses and investors, creating opportunities for more businesses to start, grow, and thrive.

“The UK is proud to be part of this partnership, working together with talented entrepreneurs to create jobs and contribute to Nigeria’s economy. By building these connections now, we can open the door to even more investment in women-led businesses in the years ahead.”

Also speaking, Director for Early-Stage Finance at FSD Africa, Juliet Munro, hailed the potential of the new investment in mobilising domestic capital and deploying it in priority areas to provide growth capital and create employment.

She said: “Nigeria does not lack capital. Women angel investors in Rising Tide Africa have shown for years that they will back women-led businesses with their own money. The RiTA Investment Network gives that capital the structure and instrument to grow, in Naira, and at scale.”

The promoters said currency matters, as much of the growth capital available to African businesses is in US dollars, and for businesses earning in Naira, dollar debt becomes more expensive every time the currency weakens. They noted that Nigeria has substantial private wealth that could finance these businesses in their own currency, but few channels exist to connect that wealth to smaller companies.

The RiTA Investment Network is designed to build that channel. Rising Tide Africa’s members have invested together for years and have backed 39 companies to date. The Network will turn that experience into a formal investment platform, with professional credit assessment, an investment committee, an advisory board, and monitoring and reporting systems that investors need to commit capital with confidence.

“Investors will choose the businesses they back, one transaction at a time. Finance will mainly take the form of revenue-based finance, where repayments rise and fall with business sales. This, according to the group, suits profitable businesses that lack collateral and do not want to give up ownership to equity investors.

The GP, RiTA Investment Network and spokesperson of the Network, Yemi Keri, welcomed the catalytic investment as a major boost to the Network’s ambition to raise US$10 million in local currency to support women enterprises in the country.

“Women-led businesses in Nigeria are growing, and they need lenders who understand how they work. We founded RiTA to give investors a disciplined way to lend to them, one business at a time. FSD Africa’s support lets us build the structure, the discipline and the data to do this at scale,” she said.

FSD Africa’s funding, according to the statement, meets the cost of building the institution in its first three years, before it can sustain itself from fees. It pays for the team, legal structure, governance and systems that make local capital ready to invest.

Rising Tide Africa has already secured around US$1.5 million in soft commitments from its network. For every dollar of FSD Africa funding, the Network aims to mobilise around eight dollars of Nigerian private capital.

The partnership builds on a year of advisory work between FSD Africa and Rising Tide Africa, and forms part of FSD Africa’s wider partnership with the British High Commission to deepen early-stage finance in Nigeria.

The Network completed its first transaction in September 2026, a syndicated corporate note to Ororo Waste Management Limited. Two further businesses are now in structuring and due diligence.

The long-term goal is larger. The track record built through the Network is intended to support Rising Tide Africa’s plan to launch a US$10 million, Naira-denominated growth debt fund for businesses led by women, and to bring institutional investors into it.

Along the way, Rising Tide Africa will produce resources that other first-time fund managers in Nigeria can use. These include 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 businesses led by women.

Together, they aim to show that lending to these businesses is investable at scale, and to lower the cost for the next local manager to follow.

The RiTA Investment Network is part of FSD Africa’s Early-Stage Finance strategy to mobilise diverse pools of African capital for small and growing businesses. Alongside angel networks and private wealth, FSD Africa is working with corporates, local fund managers and institutional investors to build the channels that connect domestic capital to the businesses that need it.