A Lagos-based private equity firm is moving to close one of the most stubborn funding gaps in West African finance, and it has secured international backing to do it.
Àrgentil Capital Management Limited has secured international backing to advance plans for a $75 million private equity fund targeting small and medium-sized businesses in Nigeria and Ghana, in a move aimed at unlocking domestic pension capital for a segment long starved of funding. The announcement was made on the sidelines of the World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington.
The Lagos-based firm was selected for the inaugural cohort of the Blended Finance Accelerator for Fund Managers (A4FM), a programme run by Convergence Blended Finance in partnership with Global Affairs Canada, which provides catalytic grant funding and tailored acceleration support to help fund managers design, structure, and launch blended finance vehicles for developing markets. Àrgentil was chosen from more than 180 applicants as one of just six fund managers in the first cohort.
Through A4FM, Àrgentil has received proof-of-concept stage support to structure and operationalise the Àrgentil Investment Fund (ÀSIF), a $75 million growth-oriented private equity fund targeting underserved SMEs in Nigeria and Ghana. The fund squarely targets the so-called "missing middle" businesses, too large for microfinance yet too small or risky for traditional banks and mainstream private equity, a structural gap that consistently suppresses job creation and economic resilience across the region.
ÀSIF is designed with a dual-currency structure intended to enable participation from both international investors and domestic pension funds, two pools of capital that rarely participate in the same vehicle. Convergence's support will focus on strengthening the fund's foreign exchange framework, expanding its local currency sleeve, and deepening engagement with potential investors ahead of launch.
Àrgentil Managing Partner Gbenga Hassan was direct about the stakes: "SMEs are the backbone of the West African economy, yet remain undercapitalised. This selection is a significant milestone and a clear vote of confidence in the West African investment landscape."
Leah Pedersen, Senior Director at Convergence, added that the initiative would help validate a blended finance model capable of mobilising both international and domestic capital into underserved markets.
The ÀSIF launch is part of a broader wave of SME-focused capital vehicles converging on West Africa in 2026, alongside Growth Investment Partners in Ghana and the Ci-Gaba fund, all targeting the same undercapitalised segment with variations of the same blended finance structural toolkit.
For Nigeria's 44 million SMEs and Ghana's equally underserved business community, the question is no longer whether the capital exists; it is whether the structures being built today can move fast enough to deploy it where it is needed most.
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