Alitheia Capital backs financing for women-led businesses

Alitheia Capital, alongside 300 women-led businesses in manufacturing, agribusiness and nutrition, has called for financing solutions tailored to their needs, as the firm warned that viable enterprises remain shut out of formal capital despite demonstrating investment readiness.

The call came at the third edition of the W.O.M.A.N. conference, organised by Alitheia Capital in Lagos, where entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers and development partners examined barriers to capital, energy, technology and markets affecting women-led businesses.

The two-day conference, held under the theme, ‘Scaling Women-Led Manufacturing, Agribusiness & Nutrition MSMEs: Providing Pathways to Capital, Energy, AI and Markets for Business Resilience,’ focused on moving women-led enterprises from survival to sustainable growth.

Representing the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Systems, Abisola Olusanya, said women-led businesses continued to face significant barriers in accessing appropriate finance and growth capital.

“Many viable businesses struggle to move from the stage of survival to the stage of sustainable scale. Closing that gap must therefore be a collective responsibility. The government has a role.

Financial institutions have a role. Private equity and venture capital have a role. Development partners have a role. And the entrepreneurs themselves must continue to invest in good governance, capacity, transparency and the systems required to build sustainable enterprises,” Olusanya said.

The conference also highlighted business formalisation, financial discipline and corporate governance as critical requirements for women-led enterprises seeking to attract investment.

Delivering the keynote address, ‘From Survival to Scale: Building Investment-Ready Women-Led Enterprises in Nigeria’s Real Economy,’ the Co-Founder of WIMBIZ and Founder and Chief Executive Officer of DO.II Designs Limited, Ifeyinwa Ighodalo, said financial discipline could determine whether businesses gained access to capital and growth opportunities.

“Financial discipline creates business legibility; business legibility creates credibility, and credibility creates access to capital and opportunities for growth,” Ighodalo said.

The conference featured discussions on regulatory and infrastructure constraints, financing options for small and growing businesses, and the use of green manufacturing to reduce costs and strengthen operational resilience.

Alitheia Capital said its investment-readiness programme equipped entrepreneurs with practical knowledge on financial statements, unit economics, governance and capital structuring. At the same time, a green investment session focused on energy efficiency as both a cost-saving measure and an investment asset.

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The Co-Founder of Alitheia Capital, Jumoke Akinwunmi, said the conference showed that the major challenge was not the readiness of women-led businesses but the ability of the wider business ecosystem to provide suitable financing.

“What today showed us is that the theory is not the problem. The businesses are ready. The question is whether the ecosystem around them is ready to respond,” Akinwunmi said.

The second day of the conference focused on artificial intelligence, with an AI adoption programme delivered in partnership with Google Hustle Academy to help entrepreneurs apply AI to business operations and marketing.

The Co-Founder of Nature Sense, Funmilayo Ogunsanya, said the programme would help her business improve its operations. “Honestly, it was so impactful. I learnt a lot that will help me take Nature Sense to the next level. I am more convinced than ever that we are ready for what comes next,” Ogunsanya said.

The Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Alitheia Capital, Tokunboh Ishmael, said the participation of more than 300 screened, revenue-generating businesses showed that many women-led enterprises had already crossed important thresholds required for formal investment.

“Each was assessed against a revenue threshold, formalisation status and demonstrated growth potential, and the majority of you have never accessed formal capital. That is not a problem of ambition. It is a problem of design,” Ishmael said.

He said Alitheia Capital’s investment experience had demonstrated the commercial case for developing financing structures specifically for women-led businesses.

“After more than a decade of investing across sub-Saharan Africa, with over $250 million in assets under management, our portfolio keeps proving the same thing: when you design capital for women-led businesses, the returns follow. When women-led businesses scale, local economies scale. That is not a social argument. It is a financial one,” Ishmael said.

Alitheia Capital said it would monitor the participating businesses over the next 12 months, tracking their access to capital, revenue growth and application of skills acquired during the conference.

W.O.M.A.N., which stands for Women in Manufacturing, Agribusiness and Nutrition, is Alitheia Capital’s annual programme for high-potential women-led businesses and combines a two-day conference with a 12-month follow-up programme.