Enterprise & Micro-Grants
6,800 small businesses funded since 2017, seven in ten of them led by women.
Key figures
- seed capital deployed since 2017
- ₦2.1B
- small businesses funded
- 6,800
- of grants to women-led businesses
- 71%
- states with an active cohort
- 13
Most of the families we meet already run a business: a provisions stall, a tailoring shop, a pepper-grinding machine shared by five households. What holds them back is not effort but capital that costs 10% a month from a moneylender, and nobody to ask when the numbers stop adding up.
Each cohort starts with six weeks of evening classes in bookkeeping, pricing and saving, taught in Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo or Pidgin by local business mentors. Graduates pitch to a community panel and receive a grant of ₦150,000 to ₦600,000, paid in two tranches against simple milestones. Cooperatives of ten or more women can apply together for up to ₦2.5 million to buy shared equipment.
A mentor visits every business monthly for the first year. We publish repayment of our revolving loans, grant sizes and income changes in every annual report, because the people funding this deserve to see what works and what does not.
At a glance
- Core focus
- Seed capital, business training and mentorship for local entrepreneurs and women-led cooperatives.
- Impact
- Boost household incomes by 150% within 12 months of the first grant.
