The European Union Ambassador to Nigeria ambassador Gautier Mignot, has said the Boost Africa initiative has invested €108 million to support African entrepreneurs, mobilised close to €400 million in additional investment and contributed to the creation of about 15,000 jobs across the continent.
Mignot disclosed this in Abuja while speaking at an event to celebrate the achievements of Boost Africa, describing the initiative as both an investment in African entrepreneurs and in the wider ecosystem required to enable them to build competitive and sustainable businesses.
According to the EU Ambassador, Africa’s extraordinarily young population has been accompanied by a growing community of entrepreneurs developing innovative solutions in sectors including financial services, agriculture, healthcare, education, renewable energy and digital technology.
He, however, noted that one of the biggest constraints confronting these entrepreneurs remained access to capital, particularly at the earliest and riskiest stages of building a company.
“Boost Africa was created to address that gap,” Mignot said.
Boost Africa was launched in 2016 as a joint initiative of the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the African Development Bank (AfDB), with the support of the European Union and the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS).
Mignot said the initiative was built around a simple principle: providing African entrepreneurs with capital, expertise and a stronger investment ecosystem would enable them to build competitive businesses, create jobs and develop solutions to real development challenges.
He explained that Boost Africa was not designed to operate primarily like a conventional commercial bank providing direct loans to thousands of small businesses.
Ihe said, a key part of its model was investing through venture-capital funds and other financial intermediaries that identify and finance promising African startups and high-growth small and medium-sized enterprises.
Mignot said the EIB had, through Boost Africa, invested in venture capital funds including TLcom Tide Africa, Partech Africa, AfricInvest Venture Capital Growth Fund, Janngo Capital Startup Fund, Atlantica Venture Capital Fund and Seedstars Africa Ventures I.
He said the approach was significant because it helped develop a sustainable African venture-capital market rather than simply financing individual companies.
Mignot identified three major components of Boost Africa: investment capital, technical assistance and ecosystem development.
He said the first involved backing venture-capital funds that provide financing to innovative and scalable African companies.
“Boost Africa is a combination of capital and capacity,” Mignot said.
Highlighting the programme’s impact after a decade, he said €108 million had been invested through Boost Africa to support African entrepreneurs, with the investment helping to mobilise close to €400 million in additional investment and contributing to the creation of around 15,000 jobs.
Mignot said the figures demonstrated the catalytic effect of development finance, noting that every euro invested through Boost Africa was associated with roughly four euros in investment mobilised.
He identified the leverage effect as one of the most important aspects of the initiative.
The Ambassador said Boost Africa was also designed to address a significant financing gap in Africa’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.
He noted that although Africa had enormous entrepreneurial talent, the continent’s venture-capital market remained relatively small, with Africa accounting for only about one to two per cent of global startup funding.
He said Boost Africa therefore deliberately targeted the early and risky stages of the financing chain, where conventional financial institutions were often reluctant to provide funding.
Mignot stressed that the objective of development finance institutions such as the EIB was not to replace private investors but to take sufficient risks to encourage private capital to participate.
He said the nearly €400 million mobilised from the €108 million investment demonstrated the initiative’s ability to attract additional private-sector financing.
The Ambassador also highlighted Boost Africa’s focus on businesses developing solutions to practical, everyday problems.
He listed ICT and digitalisation, agribusiness, financial services and financial inclusion, healthcare, education and renewable energy among the sectors targeted by the programme.
Mignot said Boost Africa’s model could help businesses develop solutions to challenges affecting small enterprises and supply chains.
He noted that TradeDepot had used technology to connect suppliers with businesses and had helped serve more than 40,000 retailers in Nigeria.
Mignot also said there were several other successful stories within the Boost Africa ecosystem, adding that the experiences of entrepreneurs supported through the initiative demonstrated the impact of providing businesses with both capital and expertise.
He further stressed the importance of young people to the initiative, saying entrepreneurship could become a major source of employment for Africa’s growing youth population.
According to Mignot, Nigeria was particularly important to the success of initiatives such as Boost Africa because of its large population, youthful demographic, entrepreneurial energy and vibrant startup ecosystem.
He, however, noted that many Nigerian entrepreneurs still faced challenges accessing patient, early-stage and growth capital.
Mignot said the EIB had found that several of the early startups financed through the programme were headquartered in Nigeria, reflecting the country’s position as one of Africa’s leading startup hubs.
He stressed, however, that the broader objective should not simply be to produce more Nigerian startups, but to build Nigerian and African companies capable of scaling across the continent and beyond.
“When an entrepreneur in Lagos develops a solution that can subsequently operate in Ghana, Kenya, Côte d’Ivoire or South Africa, we are beginning to see the creation of genuinely pan-African business,” he said.
Mignot said such continental expansion was ultimately what initiatives such as Boost Africa should enable ensuring that African innovation was financed appropriately and given the expertise and networks required to achieve African and global scale.
Also speaking at the event, Mr Moussa Nakoulima, European Investment Bank Country Relationship Manager for Nigeria, described Boost Africa as a “smart combination of capital and capacity”, stressing that its impact extended beyond financing individual entrepreneurs.
Nakoulima said Africa had a young and talented population and a growing community of businessmen and women developing solutions across financial services, healthcare, digital technology, renewable energy and other sectors.
He identified lack of access to capital, particularly during the earliest and riskiest stages of business development, as one of the biggest constraints facing African entrepreneurs.
According to him, this financing gap was one of the reasons Boost Africa was established in 2016 by the EIB and AfDB with support from the EU and OACPS.
Nakoulima reiterated that the initiative did not function like a traditional financing institution providing direct loans to companies.
he said, Boost Africa works through venture-capital funds and other financial intermediaries that identify, assess and finance startups and micro, small and medium-sized enterprises at early stages of development.
He said the EIB had worked with six venture-capital funds through the programme, describing the model as important for building a sustainable African venture-capital market.
Nakoulima also highlighted the three pillars of Boost Africa investment capital, technical assistance and ecosystem development.
He said technical assistance was necessary to equip fund managers and entrepreneurs with expertise in accounting, market analysis, legal structuring and other areas critical to business development.
He added that ecosystem development through incubators, accelerators, networking and knowledge sharing was equally important to strengthening Africa’s entrepreneurial environment.
Reiterating the programme’s financial impact, Nakoulima said the €108 million invested through Boost Africa had helped attract approximately €400 million in additional funding and contributed to the creation of about 15,000 jobs.
He explained that this represented approximately three additional euros mobilised from other investors for every euro invested through Boost Africa, describing the leverage effect as one of the programme’s most important achievements.
Nakoulima said the initiative was deliberately designed to take risks at stages of the financing chain where conventional financial institutions were often reluctant to invest.
He stressed that the EIB’s role was not to replace private investors but to take appropriate risks that would encourage private capital to participate.
He also reiterated the programme’s focus on practical economic challenges, citing TradeDepot’s role in using technology to connect suppliers with retailers and improve supply-chain efficiency in Nigeria.
Nakoulima said Nigeria demonstrated the relevance of Boost Africa because of its large population, youthful population and vibrant startup ecosystem.
He noted that many of the programme’s early beneficiaries were headquartered in Nigeria, reflecting the country’s importance as one of Africa’s leading startup hubs.
he said the ambition should go beyond Nigeria by creating companies capable of expanding into other African markets.
According to him, when businesses originating in Lagos can successfully operate in Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya and South Africa, they begin to create genuine Pan-African companies capable of generating value at continental scale.
Nakoulima said this was ultimately the objective of Boost Africa to ensure that African innovation received the capital, expertise and networks required to scale across the continent and compete globally.
