The purpose of the catalyzing investment for small businesses (cisb) activity is to provide affordable access to finance and business advisory services to qualified small and medium enterprises (smes)…

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) awarded a $500,000 Project Grant under the USAID Foreign Assistance for Programs Overseas (CFDA 98.001) program to Pangea Ventures Inc., a self-certified small disadvantaged business, on February 9, 2024. The grant funds the Catalyzing Investment for Small Businesses (CISB) activity in Sierra Leone, which aims to provide affordable access to finance and business advisory services to qualified small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in order to attract impact investors to the Sierra Leonean market. The $3M total project will leverage $2.5M in private sector investment alongside the USAID funding, with the long-term goal of engaging local banks to sustainably finance SMEs at affordable rates, reducing the need for future donor support. In addition to this direct grant, Pangea Ventures has received two sub-awards from Food Enterprise Solutions, LLC to facilitate foreign investment in Senegalese food enterprises.

The purpose of the catalyzing investment for small businesses (cisb) activity is to provide affordable access to finance and business advisory services to qualified small and medium enterprises (smes) and to attract impact investors to sierra leone. Once impact investors enter the sierra leone market the network will continue to grow. At the same time, as smes receive access to finance they will learn through the business advisory services and due diligence process how to be an investable business. In effect, cisb will not only mobilize investment in smes, but in addition, provide proof of concept (i.e. pilot) that sierra leone smes are profitable investments for impact investors. The long-term development goal post activity is to have this initial cycle of investment demonstrate to local banks that smes are investable at affordable rates thereby reducing the need for future impact investing and donor support. SME access to finance is a key development challenge that is highlighted in the U.S. Embassy's integrated country strategy (ICS), the government of sierra leone medium term national development plan (mtndp), the ministry of agriculture national agricultural transformation programme (natp) and the bank of sierra leone's national strategy for financial inclusion (nsfi). The cisb activity partner, pangea global ventures, is the private sector entity that will implement the project. The total project value is $3,000,000 with $2,500,000 coming from private sector partners (in the form of equity, loans, and in-kind contribution) and $500,000 from USAID. The activity will be implemented over a two year period.