Africa-Press – Namibia. LOCAL asset management company Eos Capital has raised N$90 million for investments into agriculture, which are expected to be deployed this year.
In an announcement made late last week, the company said the funds were raised under the company’s Euphrates Agri Fund, which was launched last year with the intent of raising about N$500 million to fund agricultural projects in the private sector.
Eos had planned to raise at least N$500 million by March this year, but it appears the company has fallen short. The recently raised capital “will allow Euphrates to make its first investments in projects across the Namibian agriculture value chain while additional fundraising continues,” said the company last week.
Eos Capital has more than N$1 billion in assets under management across its three funds: Allegrow Fund, Namibian Infrastructure Development and Investment Fund and Euphrates Fund.
Nicole Maske, the managing partner at Eos Capital, recently said despite having more than N$600 million in funding available for projects, the projects themselves do not exist in Namibia.
“We do not have a robust pipeline of opportunities developed by project developers in Namibia compared to other places. The Namibian landscape is characterised by having a shortage of skilled and able project developers who have the resources to do project development work at risk,” Maske said.
According to her, for Namibia to create more projects, skilled people need to consider entrepreneurship and project development, even if it means leaving safe salaried jobs to do so or changing their business models.
“These people need to make a conscious decision to make a difference by taking a risk in developing a project that could create jobs and growth, even if it takes a couple of years.
“Furthermore, we need education on how to develop and promote a project. People often come into our offices with a five-page business plan and some rough research on the market they plan to enter and get angry when we do not want to fund them,” she said. It is not clear which private agriculture investment will receive the N$90 million boost yet.
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