The African Development Bank (AfDB) says it has approved 15 million dollars for equity investment in Verod Capital Growth Fund III, a private equity fund for investments in high growth middle market companies.

The bank said on Friday that the figure was approved by its Board of Directors for companies in in Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone and the Gambia.

The bank said the fund’s investments would be in companies in consumer driven sectors including light industrials, fast moving consumer goods, education, financial services and agro processing.

It also said the ticket size for each investment would be between 5 million dollars and 20 million dollars.

Mr Abdu Mukhtar, the African Development Bank’s Director of Industrial and Trade Development, AfDB, said the fund would help accelerate investments in small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) in the West African region.

“This is key to job and wealth creation, knowledge transfer and scaling up of local businesses.

“The Fund will provide an important vehicle to growing SMEs in Africa, which are a key pillar to the continent’s industrialization drive,” Mukhtar added, in a statement posted on the bank’s website.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the fund’s target size is 150 million dollars.