Our Approach
Our approach to micro investment is based upon the following considerations:
1. The dedicated focus on developing more formal enterprises (small, medium & large), will bring about sustainable economic development and poverty reduction. The ability to show measurable scale is critical for these types of businesses.
2. The high rate of unemployment with university graduates in Africa presents a huge opportunity to enable these formal enterprises. In Nigeria for example, universities and polytechnics admit about 2,000,000 students yearly with about 600,000 graduates. A significant portion of these youthful unemployed and underemployed demographic are currently not making any contribution to economic development which is a travesty. World Bank Data shows Nigeria’s population at 206,139,587 in 2020 with approximately 60% young, energetic working-age people who could grow the country’s economy.
3. Job saturation in the private sector and the Shrinking public sector in Africa are driving the demand for the startup of the right kind of formal enterprises that will positively impact economic development and reduce poverty in sub–Saharan Africa.
4. There are about 44 million SMEs in Sub Saharan Africa, with almost all of them being micro and predominantly informal. There is an opportunity to enable formal small and medium enterprises in a way that they can contribute significantly to economic development with their ability to drive productivity and growth as opposed to only having the micro informal enterprises that do not single-handedly have the same effect on the economy.
5. The goal of SSC Ventures is to enable as many formal SMEs as possible with micro investments over a set period. The benefit of these micro investments agreements for the venture owners includes funding, training, oversight, and a clear path to owning their own venture writhing 24 months of funding. Naturally, training, and ongoing oversight are risk mitigation strategies to help give the ventures maximum chances of becoming and staying successful.