Nigeria Accounts for $131bn of Africa's $209bn Business Financing Gap

Nigeria accounts for the largest share of a $209 billion financing gap facing Black-owned and Black-led businesses across five key African economies, according to a new study that highlights how capital shortages are stalling the continent's most promising firms.

The research, commissioned by British International Investment (BII) and Swedfund International and carried out by Open Capital Advisors, examined Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Senegal and Ivory Coast.

Nigeria's outsized gap

Of the $209 billion total, Nigeria alone accounts for $131 billion — the single largest share — followed by South Africa at $45 billion, Kenya at $23 billion, Senegal at $5.7 billion and Ivory Coast at $4.6 billion.

Nigeria's dominance in the figures reflects the sheer scale of its business population. "Nigeria has 200 million-plus people," said Chris Chijiutomi, BII's head for Africa. The gap is "more pronounced because of the volume of businesses that exist."

The study's central finding is that Black-owned and Black-led businesses tend to be small and remain small: representation declines sharply as businesses scale. "If these businesses aren't getting capital for growth, they're just plateauing," Chijiutomi said.

A gap that compounds

The financing gap is not simply a matter of money being unavailable. It reflects structural barriers: limited access to formal credit, collateral requirements that exclude asset-light businesses, thin networks of angel and early-stage investors, and a venture capital ecosystem that is still concentrated in a handful of markets and sectors.

Across Africa, female-founded and Black-owned businesses face compounded disadvantages. A separate analysis by the research firm Africa: The Big Deal found that female-founded startups receive less than 1 per cent of African venture funding, and that the share of funding going to gender-diverse teams fell from 18 per cent in 2021 to 8 per cent in 2025.

Business Insight

The $209 billion figure is more than a statistic; it is a measure of economic potential forgone. Businesses that cannot access growth capital cannot hire at scale, invest in equipment, enter new markets or move up the value chain. The result is an economy populated by micro-enterprises that never become the mid-sized firms that drive employment and tax revenue.

For financiers, the gap is also an opportunity. Development finance institutions such as BII and Swedfund are increasingly focused on mobilising private capital into underserved segments, using blended finance and first-loss guarantees to make investments viable. Commercial banks and pension funds, which control far more capital, have largely stayed on the sidelines — partly because of risk perception, partly because the ticket sizes are small relative to their cost structures.

Closing the gap will require more than concessional money. It needs better credit infrastructure, stronger local capital markets, and intermediaries that can underwrite and monitor small and medium-sized businesses efficiently.

Background

Access to finance is consistently cited as one of the biggest constraints on African businesses. Traditional lenders favour large corporates and government securities, while the venture capital industry is small, concentrated in fintech and a few geographies, and prone to boom-and-bust cycles. Black-owned and Black-led firms face additional hurdles related to networks, bias and the historical concentration of wealth and capital.

Conclusion

The $209 billion financing gap is the clearest accounting yet of what African businesses are missing. Nigeria's $131 billion share is both a warning and an invitation: the country has the entrepreneurs and the market, but not yet the capital architecture to help them grow. Without it, too many businesses will plateau — and the continent will forgo the jobs and output they could have created.