Economy
How to Raise Funds for Your Startup Despite Coronavirus
By Damilola Faustino
With the coronavirus pandemic, you would think venture capitalists and angel investors would stop scouting for African startups to invest. This is wrong.
In the past few months, African startups in different sectors have raised significant dollars and more are still coming as the coronavirus lockdown is gradually being eased across Africa.
African startups that recently raised funds
1.) Tomato Jos: Tomato Jos, an agro-processing company focused on the local production of high-quality tomato paste for the African market announced that it had completed a €3.9 million ($4.2 million) Series A round.
2.) BusyMed, a South African healthtech startup raised undisclosed funding from LionPride, a Venture Capital Investor. The investment was facilitated by HAVAIC.
3.) 54gene, a Nigerian genomic startup, raised a $15 million investment led by Adjuvant Capital to allow the company to scale operations in support of generating novel insights from human genetics research.
4.) uLesson, a Nigerian-based education technology startup, has announced participation in its seed funding round by Founder Collective, a marquee seed-stage venture capital fund.
5.) Brimore, an Egyptian direct end-to-end distribution Startup has closed $3.5 million pre-Series A round led by Algebra Ventures.
6.) Finnfund invested $1 million in Kasha, a Rwandan-based e-commerce platform improving women’s access to genuine health, hygiene, and self-care products in East Africa.
7.) East Africa Fruits Co., a Tanzanian company addressing food distribution challenges to improve efficiencies in the farm-to-market sector, announced that it closed Series A equity funding totalling $3.1 million.
8.) Flutterwave, an African fintech startup raised a $35 million Series B funding round co-led by Grey Croft & eVentures. The round was joined by CRE Ventures, FIS, Visa, Green Visor, and Endeavor.
As a founder, you too can raise funds…here is how
There is no doubt that it is difficult to raise funds during this coronavirus pandemic. So far, in the WeeTracker Q1 funding report, 86 deals were announced. They estimate that total funding from these disclosed deals totalled $245.13 million.
Regardless this should not deter you. In fact, it should be a morale booster because even Venture Capitalists are setting up venture funds and raising huge sums to support African startups.
Novastar announced that it closed its Novastar Ventures Africa Fund II at $108 million to support startups in both East and West Africa.
Harambe Entrepreneur got $1 million from Cisco Systems Inc. and a foundation of South African businessman Jonathan Oppenheimer to support African technology startups and help kick-start the return of venture capital to the continent following the coronavirus outbreak.
Raising funds:
1.) Find tech ways to run your business and do not stop innovating
The new normal is working from home. The question you should ask yourself is how do I run my business despite the coronavirus? The simple answer is technology. Deploy an affordable tech strategy to make your customers know you are still existing.
2.) Apply for funding and join accelerators
There are unlimited funding opportunities out there for African startups. You have to apply for these them. Also, apply to join accelerators.
3.) Disclose your funding needs to your network
If you need funding, reach out to friends and network. They may connect you to an investor especially if you have a solid pitch and scalable product to back up your funding claims.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Senate has passed a bill to repeal and re-enact the law establishing the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), paving the way for the regulatory agency to be renamed the Insurance Regulatory Commission (IRC).
The legislation, titled the Insurance Regulatory Commission (Establishment) Bill, 2026, was passed after the Senate considered and adopted the report of its committee on banking, insurance and other financial institutions.
The Chairman of the committee, Mr Adetokunbo Abiru, the senator representing Lagos East, who presented the report, stated that the proposed legislation was necessary because the existing National Insurance Commission Act of 1997 had become outdated and no longer reflected the realities of Nigeria’s evolving insurance industry or global regulatory standards.
According to the Senate, the decision to change the Commission’s name was informed by the need to eliminate confusion associated with the existing designation and to better reflect the institution’s regulatory mandate within Nigeria’s insurance industry.
The bill also provides legal protection for the commission and its officers against adverse claims arising from the lawful execution of their statutory duties.
However, he noted that the commission’s enabling law had become obsolete, exposing significant regulatory gaps that required urgent legislative intervention.
‘The current National Insurance Commission Act 1997 is outdated and does not adequately address the emerging economic growth, needs and development of the insurance business,” the lawmaker said.
He explained that the new legislation seeks to strengthen the independence of the commission by empowering it to make regulatory decisions without undue influence in the country’s insurance sector.
According to him, the bill also enhances the commission’s authority to exchange information and collaborate with domestic and international regulatory bodies, issue regulations, guidelines, standards and directives on insurance-related matters, and intervene more effectively in financially distressed insurance companies to protect policyholders and preserve financial stability.
This marks yet another move to strengthen the country’s insurance sector following the enactment of the Nigerian Insurance Industry Reform Act (NIIRA) of 2025 and the industry-wide recapitalisation exercise, which will wrap up by July 31.
By Adedapo Adesanya
About 143 companies that successfully passed the technical and prequalification stages of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission’s (NUPRC) 2025 Licensing Round will, today, compete for 50 oil and gas blocks at the commercial bid conference in Abuja, the final stage in the allocation process for the assets.
The commission said only the prequalified companies have been invited to attend the event, which will hold at the Conference Centre of the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja, stressing that participation is strictly by invitation.
The commercial bid conference will determine the successful bidders for oil and gas assets located across Nigeria’s producing and frontier basins.
The 50 blocks comprise 16 onshore blocks and 18 shallow water blocks in the Niger Delta, one deep offshore block, three onshore blocks in the Benin Basin, four in the Anambra Basin, four in the Chad Basin, and four in the Benue Trough.
According to the commission, the winning bids will be determined through a transparent evaluation process based on clearly defined commercial parameters. These include the signature bonus offered by bidders, the proposed work programme commitment and the level of performance security provided. The final selection will be based on a weighted technical and commercial score.
The licensing round is being conducted under the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021, which requires a transparent and competitive process for the award of petroleum assets.
NUPRC had announced the commencement of the 2025 Licensing Round on November 11, 2025, before opening the online bid portal on December 1, 2025, to enable interested companies to register and participate in the exercise.
To ensure prospective investors fully understood the requirements, the commission organised a pre-bid conference on January 14, 2026, at Eko Hotels and Suites, Lagos. The event provided detailed explanations on the licensing guidelines and bidding procedures to registered participants and other stakeholders.
Registration and submission of prequalification documents closed on February 27, 2026, while the prequalification evaluation was completed on March 16, 2026.
NUPRC disclosed that 286 companies initially submitted applications for prequalification.
Following the evaluation process, 196 companies were cleared to participate in the technical and commercial bid stages.
The prequalified 143 companies eventually submitted a total of 200 bids for the available oil and gas blocks. These companies are now set to compete at the commercial bid conference, where the financial offers will be opened and evaluated to determine the eventual winners.
The licensing round is expected to attract fresh investment into Nigeria’s upstream petroleum sector, boost exploration activities across both producing and frontier basins, increase crude oil and gas reserves, and support the country’s drive to grow production and government revenue.
It also underscores the regulator’s commitment to implementing a transparent, competitive and investor-friendly licensing regime under the Petroleum Industry Act.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has retained all key monetary policy parameters following the conclusion of its two-day meeting on July 21, 2026, on Tuesday, maintaining its tight monetary policy stance to curb inflation and support macroeconomic stability.
According to the Governor of the apex bank, Mr Yemi Cardoso, who chaired the committee, the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR), which serves as the benchmark interest rate, remains at 26.50 per cent. The MPC also retained the asymmetric corridor around the MPR at +50 basis points and -450 basis points.
In addition, the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) for commercial banks was left unchanged at 45.00 per cent, while the CRR for merchant banks remains at 16.00 per cent. The committee also retained the CRR on non-Treasury Single Account (Non-TSA) public sector deposits at 75.00 per cent, with the liquidity ratio at 30.00 per cent.
The decision reflects the apex bank’s continued commitment to containing inflationary pressures through a restrictive monetary policy while safeguarding the resilience of Nigeria’s financial system amid ongoing macroeconomic adjustments.
By keeping all policy tools unchanged, the MPC signalled its intention to continue managing excess liquidity in the banking sector and maintain stability in financial markets.
The move is also expected to provide greater policy certainty for investors and businesses monitoring the country’s monetary policy direction.
The latest decision also means borrowing costs are likely to remain elevated in the near term as the central bank continues to prioritise price stability over monetary easing.
Analysts had expected the CBN committee to retain the rate after Nigeria’s headline inflation came in at 15.91 per cent as of June 2026, marking a slight decline from 15.93 per cent in May.
However, even as overall price growth has moderated significantly compared to previous periods, food inflation remains a persistent challenge, accelerating to 17.52 per cent in June.
