France government has facilitated the sum of £1 billion (N500 billion) for private sector players in Africa to foster innovation and enable them to scale up their business enterprises.
This was disclosed by the President Emmanuel Macron of France at an interactive business forum organized by the Tony Elumelu Foundation in Lagos, Nigeria during his visit.
The initiative which is tagged ‘Digital Africa Initiative (DAI)’, is meant to equip private sector players to develop and accelerate an encouraging private sector ecosystem that would enhance the development of venture capitals and attract long-term investors to the continent’s stream of emerging entrepreneurs.
The number of emerging startups on the African business scene has increased tremendously, making private sector businesses very critical to the development of the African economy this is particularly because they possess huge potentials for employment and the development of the continent.
Unfortunately, over time, there have been cases of under-performance on the part of these businesses due to challenges like inaccessibility of investment funds.
But with this initiative, investment funds would be readily accessible to big and small companies in Africa, thereby giving them a platform to scale and develop.