The Norwegian Investment Fund for developing countries, Norfund, recently organized its first stakeholder event in Nigeria which hosted key players across multiple industries in the private sector to provide an update on its activities in Nigeria and West Africa.
The exclusive forum and luncheon held at Lagos Continental Hotel announced Norfund’s intention to increase investments in Nigeria and the West African region with the aim of driving development through investments in the private sector, and creating jobs. Owned and funded by the Norwegian government, Norfund is the government’s most important instrument for strengthening the private sector in developing countries, by providing capital through its investments, whilst creating jobs and improving lives.
The fund, which was established by the Norwegian Parliament in 1997, is focused on driving sustainable development with capital in the form of equity, debt and hybrid instruments, and fund investments to businesses and projects with strong developmental impact and commercial returns. As a responsible investor, Norfund contributes to the achievement of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals by investing for both commercial return and development impact and focusing on countries and sectors where capital is scarce and development impact is likely to be strong.
Giving the opening remarks, Eivind Fjeldstad, Business Counsellor, Royal Norwegian Embassy in Abuja, who represented His Excellency Knut Eiliv Lein, the Ambassador of Norway to Nigeria, said, “Set to become the world’s third most populated country, Nigeria is Norway’s most important market on the African continent as we believe that there is a huge opportunity for growth in Nigerian industries. We are impressed by the measures taken by the government to strengthen the startup community especially, as underlined by The Startup Act signed by President Muhammadu Buhari in October. Moreover, Norway is in the process of updating its African strategy and I’m proud that the Norway-Nigeria relations reflect this with business and investments taking centre stage. We thank Norfund for its role in strengthening Nigerian-Norway relations in the most meaningful way.”
In her remarks, Ellen Cathrine Rasmussen, Executive Vice-President, Scalable Enterprises, Norfund, spoke about Norfund’s mandate to assist in building sustainable businesses and industries.
