Immediate past governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, is embarking on a new venture in the private sector by launching a $100 million (est. N100 billion) venture capital fund for startups in Nigeria, with a particular focus on those in the Kaduna tech ecosystem.
Despite missing out on a controversial ministerial appointment after playing a leading role in President Tinubu’s presidential victory, El-Rufai appears to be in high spirit, determined to contribute to national economic development by supporting innovative ideas of young entrepreneurs.
El Rufai says he will contribute $2 million of his own money to kickstart the fund and aims to attract additional investment from individuals and corporates “who believe in us but don’t have the capacity or the time to do the analysis and evaluation”.
He said he found out during his eight year tenure in Kaduna as governor that there were many young Nigerians with brilliant ideas but lacked mentors and financial support.
“What young people need is essentially mentoring and financing to get things going. They develop the idea and see whether it is viable. And we will open doors for them because they don’t have contact. They don’t know or have access to ministers, presidents, or regulatory agencies. We do. We know the minefields that they have to navigate. We know that they need to give them appointments and we can provide them with the startup funding and in return we take an equity position”, he explained.
The former governor said his venture capital will not only be available for startups in various sectors such as agriculture, ICT, and the creative industry, but also for established companies facing management challenges but that are still viable. The venture capital fund will invest in these companies, help resolve their issues, then exit.
El Rufai is collaborating with private sector partners such as Eyo Ekpo, co-founder of Excredite Consulting Limited and he plans to expand across Africa.
His venture capital fund is set to launch early next year and will operate from Abuja to diversify funding beyond Lagos.
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