Concordia Consultancies, a Nigerian global advisory firm has raised $4.5 million towards its $15 million commodity trade fund.
The company is building a fund to help finance commodity trade and develop cobalt mines across Africa.
Habila Malgwi, president of the organisation, said in a recent interview that building this fund became necessary as a way of supporting trade from Africa.
“I have seen many entrepreneurs who are into commodity trade, for example agricultural products meant for exportation.
“However, the lack of financing makes it extremely difficult for them to export these products abroad,” Malgwi said, adding that, we believe that building this fund will be a win for both our investors and the entrepreneurs.
He said in a world where the traditional banks make it difficult for entrepreneurs to access finance, we want to make life of many entrepreneurs easy.
“We understand the trading system, we understand international payment and financing system and so we are ready to bridge that gap,” said Malgwi.
He said in 2020, Africa exported commodities worth over $300 billion in trade now imagine if more people can get access to easy financing to facilitate this trade more effectively; this figure could double.
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While speaking about his interest in cobalt mine, Malgwi said: “Cobalt today is used in every car manufacturing company, metal companies, phone companies and battery companies.
“It is one natural resource that has less competition unlike gold, Diamond and even crude oil yet lucrative. DRC for example is the largest cobalt producer, and it generates more than 70 percent of the world’s cobalt.
“We believe that investing in cobalt mines by funding them properly to be more sophisticated, bringing in new technologies and equipment to increase productivity will be a huge achievement to the common cobalt miner in Africa,” he said.
“Our plan is to bring in structure with our finances, optimize sales and make sure our investors are receiving the desired returns from the fund invested in this cobalt mine.”
Malgwi, while speaking about the fund set to launch in January 2024, he said, “we have been busy raising and speaking to investors so far, we have raised $4.5 million in this pre seed round; we are overwhelmed with the momentum and support we have received from investors mostly from Africa and the Middle east.”
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He said Concordia will not be the fund manager as they are not qualified to be fund managers. “However, we are working with a world class fund manager to manage this fund while we own the fund and present the opportunities.
“The Pre-seed fund has gone towards financing many Agro commodities trade, the common African farmer needs to export his or her product the market is there for them, and they should be able to move from being common farmers to sophisticated exporters.
“We have seen the challenge and has identified it and there is no better time to provide financing for commodities in Africa than now,” Malgwi said.
