AVA Global Asset Managers Limited is currently issuing the first tranche (Series 1) of AVA Infrastructure Fund (AVA IF). The AVA Infrastructure Fund issuance of up to N20 billion under the approved N200 billion programme which opened on January 29, 2024, will close March 6, 2024. The AVA Infrastructure Fund is a close-ended fund registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The Fund seeks to address the infrastructural deficits in Nigeria through the objective provision of institutional capital into infrastructure development.
Efe Shaire, Co-CEO, AVA Capital Group while speaking recently on the AVA Infrastructure Fund issuance said the IF is a 10-year life cycle targeted towards infrastructure space for qualified investors.
“We are looking to invest in power, gas infrastructure, roads, agricultural processing, telecommunications and social infrastructures. It largely goes towards qualified institutional investors and HNI’s,” he said.
Speaking in what informed the decision to raise the Fund, Shaire noted that a number of parties have come up with the infrastructure fund in recent times driven by the changes in the pension industry, following changes in terms of new policies from PenCom, encouraging a lot of PFAs and gaining conditions under which they can invest in long-term infrastructure plans.
“It’s at the back of these reforms that we thought that we also need to ensure that we are able to create instruments that pension funds and other institutional investors can as well invest in giving the remit that they now have their new regulation,” he said.
The managing director explained that infrastructural problems cannot be solved only from government initiatives, adding that the private sector should be able to also contribute to the conversation by working together to ensure cooperation with the public sector to accelerate the development of the infrastructure base while improving the country’s productivity.
According to him, “our country is almost a mono-product economy because of crude oil and there is no way we are going to move away from that and get foreign exchange from other sectors without making them productive and solving infrastructure problems.”
The overall objective of the AVA IF is to spur socio-economic impact and unlock the development of the Nigerian economy.
The purpose of the Fund is to serve as a new source of capital for infrastructure projects, promoting financing for infrastructure projects in Nigeria and the resulting socioeconomic effects.
The Fund is supported majorly by private sector monies and offers a sustainable platform for new kinds of investors that traditionally do not have access to these markets to invest billions in infrastructure projects.
