By Adedapo Adesanya

Africa-focused venture capital firm, TLcom Capital, has reached a 50 per cent deployment milestone in its $5 million pre-seed fund, TAPSI (TIDE Africa Pre Seed Investments), following its most recent investment in the $2 million seed round by TurnStay, the South African travel payment platform.

TAPSI was launched in 2022 to extend TLcom’s investment reach to pre-seed stage companies, providing up to $200,000 in funding alongside access to the firm’s global network, operational expertise, and over two decades of experience in African venture investing.

The fund acts as an upstream feeder vehicle for TLcom’s core $154 million TIDE Africa Fund II, enabling portfolio companies that perform well to progress to larger funding rounds.

In addition to Turnstay, the TAPSI portfolio currently includes Talstack (Nigeria), Bright Financial (Sudan and Ethiopia), Tradehub (Egypt), Agrails (Kenya) and three startups backed through its partnership with First Check Africa, which focuses on delivering early-stage capital to female founders.

Through TAPSI, TLcom expects to close on up to ten additional pre-seed investments before the end of 2026 and will continue to invest in diverse founding teams across Africa’s major innovation hubs.

Already, TLcom boasts one of African tech’s most impressive early-stage portfolios, including Pula, uLesson, Autochek, FairMoney, Educatly, HUB2, ILLA, Littlefish, Seamless HR, and Andela – one of the continent’s tech unicorns. With approximately $250 million under management, including the $154 million TIDE Africa II, TLcom is dedicated to empowering ambitious entrepreneurs who are solving critical challenges in large, underserved markets.

Building on the investment approach of TLcom’s TIDE Fund I and TIDE Fund II, TAPSI is sector-agnostic and focuses on key sectors where TLcom sees strong early-stage potential for outsized impact. Talstack’s journey demonstrates this approach in practice, leveraging its TAPSI pre-seed funding to validate its model and achieve early traction, culminating in a subsequent seed round from TIDE Fund II in 2024.

According to a statement, TLcom said the dedicated pre-seed fund strengthens its position as a multi-stage investor, reflecting the firm’s deep understanding of the funding lifecycle of the African tech ecosystem and the critical role early capital plays in setting African startups on a path to scale and create impact.

According to Ms Eloho Omame, Partner at TLcom Capital, says, “Pre-seed investments allow us to expand our portfolio and allocate capital across multiple stages of a company’s lifecycle. Our goal is to create massive value in underserved markets and collaborate with African founders to build from the start all the way to exit; be it an acquisition or in the form of an IPO. This is by no means easy for any start-up, in any sector; building in Africa is not for the faint-hearted. However, the likelihood of success significantly increases if we support and work with founders earlier on in their journeys and we grow alongside them”.

Eloho Omame concludes, “With TAPSI as a dedicated pre-seed arm of our investment platform, TLcom is uniquely positioned to back companies across their entire growth journey from ideation and product-market fit to scaling and maturity, reinforcing our role as a long-term partner to Africa’s most ambitious founders. As we progress with this fund, we look forward to speaking with and supporting more early-stage start-ups from across the continent,” she added.

By Aduragbemi Omiyale

To streamline disbursements and ensure every Naira is deployed towards productive investments, the federal government has integrated unspent 2024 capital funds into the 2025 budget through the Government Integrated Financial and Management Information System (GIFMIS) platform.

The GIFMIS platform was designed to improve the acquisition, allocation, utilisation and conservation of public financial resources using automated and integrated, effective, efficient and economic information systems.

The government is rolling over the unspent funds for capital projects last year into this year to accelerate economic growth and development by refining the implementation of its 2025 capital budget in a bid to unlock private sector confidence, drive infrastructure delivery, and sustain economic growth and development.

Under the revised framework, Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) of the federal government must secure warrants before entering into contracts, aligning public expenditure with cash availability and strict financial regulations.

The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr Wale Edun, at a meeting with senior government officials in Abuja on Wednesday, underscored that transparent and efficient budget execution is critical to President Bola Tinubu’s growth agenda, which targets gross domestic group (GDP) expansion of at least 7 per cent to lift millions out of poverty.

For the private sector, the reforms signal a more predictable fiscal environment, improved payment cycles, and stronger infrastructure pipelines, essential foundations for investment, and job creation.

The Minister said Nigeria’s future growth depends on effective, honest, and targeted spending, noting, “We must ensure that public resources work harder for our people and our economy.”

With these reforms, Nigeria is poised to unlock its economic potential and drive sustainable growth. By prioritizing transparent and efficient budget execution, the government is sending a strong signal to investors and citizens alike that it is committed to building a better future for all Nigerians, he stated in a statement signed by the Director of Information and Public Relations at the ministry, Mr Mohammed Manga.

By Adedapo Adesanya

The NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange fell further by 0.63 per cent on Wednesday, August 13 after closing with two price losers led by Okitipupa Plc and Mixta Real Estate Plc.

Okitipupa Plc lost N21.05 during the session to end at N216.19 per share versus N237.24 per share and Mixta Real Estate Plc declined by 54 Kobo to trade at N5.52 per unit compared with the previous day’s price of N6.06 per unit.

Consequently, the market capitalisation of the bourse decreased by N13.65 billion to close at N2.149 trillion, in contrast to the N2.162 trillion quoted at the preceding session, and the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) shrank by 22.81 points to 3,591.88 points from the previous day’s 3,614.69 points.

Business Post reports that the market ended with three price gainers during the session led by Lagos Building Investment Company (LBIC) Plc, which gained 30 Kobo to settle at N3.38 per share versus N3.08 per share, Industrial and General Insurance (IGI) Plc appreciated by 5 Kobo to end at 53 Kobo per unit compared with the previous day’s 48 Kobo per unit, and Food Concepts Plc chalked up 1 Kobo to finish at N3.11 per share versus N3.10 per share.

There was a 61.3 per cent slide in the volume of securities to 12.3 million units from 31.9 million units, just as the number of deals went down by 21.6 per cent to 29 deals from 37 deals, while the value of securities rose by 715.5 per cent to N925.6 million from N113.5 million.

Okitipupa Plc finished the day as the most traded stock by value on a year-to-date basis with 158.6 million units valued at N5.9 billion, followed by Air Liquide Plc with 507.2 million units worth N4.2 billion, and FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc with 43.8 million units valued at N1.9 billion.

The most active stock by volume on a year-to-date basis remained IGI Plc with 1.1 billion units worth N369.1 million, trailed by Impresit Bakolori Plc with 536.9 million units valued at N524.8 million, and Air Liquide Plc with 507.2 million units traded for N4.2 billion.