Venture Capital Trust Fund succeeds to retain momentum

In accordance with the latest declaration of Venture Capital Trust Fund and three partners, they had raised 10 million dollars in the first closing of the Ebankese Venture Fund. It has got to be mentioned that this is an investment fund designed to encourage the growth of the real estate sector and consists of a four-million-dollar investment from the Fund and two million dollars each from HFC Bank, Ghana Union Assurance and WBD Investments.

However, this is not all and the Ebankese Venture Fund, in reality, is exceedingly optimistic to raise no less than another 15 million dollars from private investors within 15 months to bring the total value of the fund to between 20-25 million dollars. Thus speaks Nana Osei-Bonsu, CEO, VCTF at the signing of the shareholders agreement.

On the word of Nana Osei-Bonsu, the specialized fund, to be managed by Oasis Capital Ghana, would concentrate mainly on assisting small and medium scale enterprises busy in the real estate development sector. “This is a great start for a fund that will strengthen the country’s position to work in reducing the huge housing deficit,” he added. As per him, as a minimum 30 per cent of the funds would be invested in other ventures to stimulate growth.

Nana Osei-Bonsu, in addition, announced that the Board of Trustees of VCTF had leveraged the government’s bequest of GH¢22.4 million to partner the private sector for an additional GH¢40.5 million for investments. While being questioned, he said that the Public Private Partnership (PPP) was the first in the country, where a government institution had leveraged its resources with the private sector for the creation of more funds than it was endowed with.

Nana Osei-Bonsu said VCTFs offered technical assistance to SMEs in best business practices and professional service through training and capacity building for staff, monitoring in addition to contract services.

Mr. Matthew Boadu Adjei, CEO of Oasis, said: “The management of Oasis Capital is bringing an additional 500,000 dollars to the table”. The Venture Capital Partnership includes; the Activity Ventures Finance Company, Bedrock Ventures Capital Finance Company, Gold Ventures Capital Limited and Fidelity Equity Fund II.