SEL Capital Limited has expanded its operations to provide more funding and financial advisory services to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and investment advice to High Net-worth Individuals (HNIs).
Segun Opaleye, managing director/CEO, SEL Capital Limited, says the expansion plan will enable the company translate to a merchant bank within the next three years.
Speaking during the opening of the new company’s head office in Victoria Island, Lagos, he states no nation can thrive without giving needed policy and financial backing to SMEs.
He says the company, which aspires to be the gateway and catalyst for mobilising capital for business growth and development across Africa, opened the new office to enable it reach out to more customers.
According to Opaleye, SEL Capital provides advisory services to SMEs on building a growth company, funding opportunities, expansion and structure for easy access to capital.
“We take so much time in guiding SMEs through key requirements to run a proper business. The issue around SMEs that impact negatively on their ability to access funding is poor corporate governance practices and we are helping them to resolve that by creating business-enabling structure for their businesses,” he says.
The company also provides investment advisory services to HNIs, who already understand some of the market dynamics but needed guidance to make better investment decisions.
On the expansion plan, he says the company started operation last year from its office at Parkview Estate, Ikoyi, Lagos, adding that the new head office is within its plan for a bigger and befitting space to get it ready for business.
“The whole idea is to increase our clientele base. We have also in the short period, been very instrumental in capital raising for key clients and secured funding projects in key growth sector of the economy. We just concluded a $12 million funding for a captive power plant project for a client,” he notes.
As part of its company’s plan to support SMEs and promote financial inclusion, he noted the company is finalizing plan to float a N2 billion SME Fund. “True to our value, we are offering innovative and reliable solutions to promote and deepen financial inclusion,” he says.
“We are planning to conclude on tranche one of N1 billion by third quarter of this year. The whole idea is for us to support SMEs more. For any Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)-licensed financial institution, all we are doing is intermediation. We believe that given our experience within the space, we should be able to deepen the market and provide financial support for the SMEs to grow their businesses,” he states.
The institution’s plan is to within three years, translate to a merchant bank, where it can support its clients and customers with bigger balance sheets.
“So, some of the things we are doing today are actually geared towards ensuring that we can easily move into the merchant banking segment of the market, which is our end game. We believe that with the support of our customers and other key stakeholders, we are on track to achieve this goal. It is a tough order for ourselves but if you see what we have done in the last one year, everything is geared towards that goal and we believe we can achieve it,” he says.
OLUFIKAYO OWOEYE
