19 Venture Capital firms apply to SEC for approval
Oluyinka Akintunde, Abuja
The Securities and Exchange Commission has begun the scrutinisation of applications from 19 firms seeking its approval as Venture Capital Managers.
A top official of the Commission, who confirmed this development to our correspondent on Tuesday in Abuja, disclosed that five companies have been granted approval to carry out the function of Venture Capital Managers.
Among the five registered venture capital managers, were Amalgamated Capital Funds Limited, Enterprise Capital Management Company Limited and Deap Capital Management Limited.
�Five venture capital companies have so far been registered. There are about 19 applications presently awaiting approval for registration as venture capital managers, two of this were submitted within the first six months. The two are Heirs Capital Limited and Trade Bank Limited,� the source explained.
The source disclosed that the commission was in the process of organising a seminar on venture capital with participants drawn from the financial sector, private sector and the registered venture capital managers.
Our correspondent gathered that many of the venture capital companies were seeking SEC�s approval for the purpose of intermediating the Small and Medium Industries Equity Investment Scheme.
It would be recalled that the Bankers� Sub-committee on SMIEIS had directed that venture capital companies registered for the purpose of intermediating SMIEIS Fund should register with SEC, while banks that operate SMIEIS in-house need not register with SEC.
The sub-committee also recommended that banks that invested through venture capital companies should bear the cost of managing the investments under SMIEIS rather than use the SMIEIS funds to defray the service charges of the venture capital companies.
A total of 83 banks have set aside N24.085 billion under the SMIEIS as at July 31, out of which only N9.49 billion had been invested by 56 banks in 176 projects.
A sectoral breakdown of the investments showed that the real sector made up of manufacturing, construction, agro-allied and solid minerals recorded investments valued at N6.58 (about 69 per cent) in 123 projects, while the service sub-sector accounted for the balance valued at N2.89 billion in 53 projects.
