OPIC backs CBO Investment Management Fund with $19m

The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), the U.S. government’s development finance institution, has approved a USD$18.75 million commitment in CBO Investment Management’s  fund, CBO Growth Private Equity Investment Limited Fund.

The fund, CBOIM is seeking to raise USD$150 million from international and local institutional investors to invest in small and medium enterprise companies (SMEs) in West Africa.

It is one of the first private equity fund managers to target African institutional capital through a Nigeria onshore fund in parallel with a fund backed by international investors.

The Fund will specifically invest in SMEs with scalable growth patterns and credible management teams across six core sectors including agri-business/food processing, energy services, manufacturing and import substitution, education and healthcare services, technology and media and real estate services.

CBOIM and OPIC have a mutual commitment to make investments that not only generate commercial private equity returns but also have a positive developmental impact.

“CBOIM presents an opportunity for OPIC to support an institutional-quality investment manager that will provide critical capital to SMEs in a variety of sectors in Nigeria and the rest of West Africa, where access to finance for SMEs remains a challenge, but has a strong potential for development impact.

“I’m especially proud that this is the first Africa-focused approval to result from OPIC’s Innovative Financial Intermediaries Programme (IFIP), an OPIC initiative to facilitate capital flow to developing economies,” said Elizabeth Littlefield, OPIC’s President and CEO.

Bex Nwawudu, managing partner of CBOIM commented: “Securing investment from OPIC is a powerful endorsement of the opportunity, our strategy to support the best calibre SMEs in West Africa, and our governance and ESG structures. We have a long term vision for CBO and a clear plan for delivering superior returns. We are now making excellent progress to ensure we are attracting both international and African institutional investors, as well as the partnerships required to fulfil them.”

CBO Investment Management is a West Africa investment firm based in Lagos, Nigeria and founded in 2008. The firm is managed by managing partners Bex Nwawudu & Chuka Mordi, along with managing director Joanne Yoo; and has 17 professionals on the ground. CBOIM recently appointed Gary Steinberg (the former Chief of the Investment Unit at the International Monetary Fund) as Chair of the Advisory Board and to the Investment Committee.

Steinberg joins CBO with immediate effect as he retires from his role at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) after nearly six years in post.