Economy
Private Debt Booms in Africa’s Startup Ecosystem in 2025—Report
By Adedapo Adesanya
Debt has emerged as a fast-growing asset class for the startup funding landscape in Africa, according to a new report by the African Private Capital Association (AVCA).
The 2025 Private Capital Activity in Africa report showed that Africa emerged as the only global region to record growth in private capital deal volume in 2025, underscoring the continent’s resilience amid a challenging global investment climate.
For startups, raising funds signals validation of their business model, market potential, and growth trajectory, while also providing the financial runway needed to scale operations, invest in innovation, and compete effectively. This can be done via a number of means, including bootstrapping, venture capital, private equity, debt financing, crowdfunding, accelerators, grants, corporate investments, initial public offerings (IPOs), and revenue-based financing, among others.
The data showed that private debt emerged as a fast-growing asset class, with deal volumes surging by 57 per cent year-on-year.
The growth was driven largely by the rising use of venture debt, positioning private debt alongside private equity and venture capital as a key financing channel in Africa.
The report put total investment at $5.1 billion, reflecting a slight dip in value but sustained investor appetite across the continent. The data showed that deal activity rose by 8 per cent year-on-year to 530 transactions, even as global deal volumes declined by 7 per cent.
IPOs also saw modest growth, with four listings completed during the year.
Domestic investors played a critical role in driving liquidity, accounting for 68 per cent of private capital acquisitions.
International investors made up the remaining 32 per cent, led by Asian strategic buyers seeking to expand their footprint in African markets.
The report highlighted a shift in strategy among fund managers, who increasingly focused on smaller mid-market deals as global financial conditions tightened.
Transactions valued between $50 million and $99 million doubled during the year, signalling a move away from larger, capital-intensive investments.
Sectoral activity remained dominated by financial services, particularly fintech, which accounted for 82 per cent of transactions within the sector.
The information sector ranked as the second most active, supporting investments across finance, healthcare, retail and logistics.
Regionally, Southern Africa maintained its position as the most active investment hub, while East and North Africa recorded strong performances, buoyed by growth in energy and information technology investments.
Africa’s exit market also showed significant improvement, with 81 exits recorded in 2025, representing a 27 per cent increase from the previous year and the second-highest level on record.
This contrasted sharply with a 15 per cent decline in global exit activity over the same period.
Trade buyers remained the dominant exit route, accounting for 38 per cent of transactions, while sponsor-to-sponsor deals reached a record 26 per cent, reflecting increased depth in the secondary market.
Despite the strong deal and exit performance, fundraising declined by 34 per cent year-on-year to $2.7 billion, mirroring global liquidity pressures.
Development finance institutions remained central to the ecosystem, contributing 64 per cent of total commitments.
However, domestic capital continued to deepen, with African institutional investors accounting for 21 per cent of commitments.
Sovereign wealth funds and pension funds led this trend, reflecting a growing shift towards locally sourced capital.
Commenting on the findings, AVCA chief executive, Mrs Abi Mustapha-Maduakor, said the data reflects a continent increasingly decoupling from global investment headwinds.
“This year’s report tells a clear story: Africa is decoupling from the global slowdown. Stronger exit performance, deeper participation from domestic institutional capital, and sustained commitments from development finance institutions all point to a maturing ecosystem,” she said.
She added that the momentum is expected to build further as investors increase exposure to sectors driving Africa’s next phase of economic transformation.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira recorded a loss of 49 Kobo or 0.03 per cent against the United States Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEX) on Tuesday, May 26, trading at N1,375.41/$1 compared with the preceding day’s N1,374.92/$1.
However, the local currency appreciated against the Pound Sterling in the official market during the session by N3.47 to close at N1,852.26/£1 versus Monday’s closing price of N1,855.73/£1, and gained N1.37 against the Euro to finish at N1,599.32/€1, in contrast to the previous session’s N1,600/€1.
As for the black market, the Naira traded flat against the US Dollar yesterday at N1,385/$1, and also maintained stability at the GTBank forex counter at N1,383/$1.
Interbank FX turnover increased to $73.598 million across 110 deals, indicating a significant rise from $55.786 million that passed through local banks’ records the previous day.
Market analysts noted that the Naira outlook remains stable, citing the latest round of FX inflows, which have lifted gross external reserves to $49.259 billion.
Largely, the domestic currency will close the first half of 2026 stronger as the CBN continues to inject FX inflows into the official market, due to a significant increase in FX receipts from elevated oil prices in the global commodity market.
Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market was down on Tuesday as global stocks hit record highs, widening a recent divergence between crypto and equities.
There were also outflows as retail traders added leverage, raising the risk of sharp liquidations despite new SEC-approved bitcoin index options aimed at institutions.
Bitcoin (BTC) fell by 1.4 per cent to $75,737.18, Ethereum (ETH) depleted by 1.2 per cent to $2,075.39, Ripple (XRP) lost 1.0 per cent to sell at $1.33, Binance Coin (BNB) slumped by 0.9 per cent to $651.75, Solana (SOL) depreciated by 0.8 per cent to $83.86, Cardano (ADA) dipped 0.7 per cent to $0.2402, and TRON (TRX) dropped 0.2 per cent to settle at $0.3726, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) closed flat at $1.00 each.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
To support its expansion drive, which aims to boost the Nigerian economy by ensuring sufficient sugar production in the country, Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc has opened its rights issue.
The sugar refiner hopes to raise up to N485.9 billion from the exercise, which commenced on Monday, May 25, 2026, and will close on Wednesday, June 24, 2026.
A note specifically said the net proceeds will be used to materially deleverage the company’s balance sheet, strengthen liquidity and reposition the organisation on a more sustainable capital structure.
The rights issue size is 8,097,918,827 ordinary shares of 50 Kobo each at N60.00 per share, and would be offered to shareholders on the basis of two new ordinary shares for every three existing ordinary shares held as at the close of business on April 20, 2026.
Dangote Sugar, a subsidiary of Dangote Industries Limited, refines, distributes, and markets granulated sugar to wholesalers and major players within the food and beverage, pharmaceutical, and personal care industries.
It operates the largest sugar refinery in Sub-Saharan Africa, with a combined installed refining capacity of 1.49 million metric tonnes per annum. Through its backward integration strategy, DSR is advancing plans to produce an additional 1.5 million metric tonnes of locally sourced sugar, further strengthening its position as a leading integrated sugar producer globally.
At its 20th Annual General Meeting (AGM) held last month in Lagos, shareholders approved the floating of a N500 billion rights issue to fund its strategic expansion, especially for its ambitious backward integration projects.
According to the firm’s chief executive, Mr Thabo Mabe, efforts are being made to secure approximately $1.3 billion needed to fulfil the commitment to achieving a production target of at least 600,000 tonnes annually by 2030.
“We have revised our strategic development plan to meet the 2030 objectives, leveraging the combined potential of DSR Numan Operation and Nasarawa Sugar Company Limited estates.
“This integrated plan targets substantial cane production of around 6.05 million tonnes across 45,000 hectares from both sites,” he said at the meeting.
By Dipo Olowookere
The key performance indices of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited tumbled by 0.55 per cent as a result of sell-offs across the major sectors of the market.
The bourse witnessed weak investor sentiment and low activity level during the trading day ahead of a two-day Sallah break on Wednesday and Thursday.
Analysis of the data showed that investors embarked on profit-taking yesterday, as traders liquidated their shares for holiday spending.
The banking space went down by 1.83 per cent, the insurance counter decreased by 1.41 per cent, the consumer goods index shed 0.77 per cent, the energy sector crashed by 0.14 per cent, and the industrial goods sector closed flat with an insignificant contraction.
Consequently, the All-Share Index (ASI) dropped 1,386.18 points to settle at 249,738.84 points compared with the previous day’s 251,125.02 points, and the market capitalisation crumbled by N889 billion to N160.094 trillion from N160.983 trillion.
There were 18 price gainers and 39 price losers on Customs Street at the close of transactions, representing a negative market breadth index.
Dangote Sugar depreciated by 10.00 per cent to N78.30, Transcorp Power lost 9.97 per cent to trade at N245.50, The Initiates slipped by 9.85 per cent to N27.45, Abbey Mortgage Bank dipped by 9.49 per cent to N6.20, and Fidelity Bank gave up 9.05 per cent to close at N21.60.
On the flip side, Austin Laz and McNichols gained 10.00 per cent each to sell for N4.40 and N7.92, respectively. International Energy Insurance chalked up 9.89 per cent to trade at N4.11, Learn Africa improved by 9.44 per cent to N12.75, and Haldane McCall jumped 8.06 per cent to N3.89.
The busiest stock for the day was Access Holdings with 80.6 million units worth N2.0 billion. Zenith Bank traded 33.8 million units valued at N4.5 billion, Mutual Benefits transacted 31.8 million units for N138.9 million, Neimeth exchanged 22.3 million units worth N233.0 million, and Sterling Holdings sold 22.2 million units valued at N172.4 million.
In all, market participants bought and sold 564.1 million units for N27.2 billion in 65,666 deals versus the 629.4 million units valued at N40.9 billion executed in 82,434 deals a day earlier. This showed that the trading volume, value, and number of deals went down by 10.38 per cent, 33.50 per cent, and 20.34 per cent, respectively.
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