Firm Establishes $10m Circular Economy Investment Fund

Sage Grey Finance, has established a $10 Million Circular Economy Investment fund in collaboration with stakeholders and private sector operators.

This was disclosed by the managing director of the firm, Temitope Runsewe, at the Circular Economy Week in Lagos.

Speaking at thr event, Runsewe said the growth was to drive growth in green areas through strategic partnerships with Development Banks, Financial services operators, organized private sector, MDAs and institutional players in the country.

Runsewe who highlighted the broad impact of the circular economy investment fund said it would drive circular solutions, reduce plastic waste pollution and mitigate the risk of environmental degradation.

“It’s going to be for 7 years, we have a board approval to provide a seed investment fund of N100 million. It’s a piece in the pot, but it shows that we’re starting somewhere.

‎For that, we have the fund, like I said, it’s a $10 million fund. We have a legal partner and we have the right of auditors. We plan on actually being able to fund about 120 businesses from this.

“Now, you see that, like I was saying earlier, the financial returns is going to be 5.4 million and through the funds, we will have excellent governance,” he said.

He further stated that the firm had support from GIZ and others, saying, “Now the plan is to pick up funds from MDIs, from VC, financial institutions, development partners, corporate, government, and generally all other things. If we need to have this thing done, we need everybody that can kick in something for us to achieve our desired goal for circular economy.”

The host partner of the Circular Economy Week event “Intense Group” led by its CEO, Leye Makanjuola, however attracted ecosystem builders, policy analyst, sectoral leaders, market innovators and private sector led operators where he reinforced the need to build funding pipeline for circular economy in the country to strengthen investment climate.

In the same vein, Special Adviser to Lagos State Governor on Circular Economy, Titi Oshodi said circular transformation requires strong financial alignment noting that the circular economy is a system in motion for enterprise and finance.

She alluded that the structured conversation from policy to finance to innovations and trade will send real signals to where the future is heading for circular economy.