Earlier this 12 months, Lagos-based personal fairness agency Aruwa Capital Administration invested in Yikodeen, a Nigerian producer of security boots for staff within the oil and gasoline, building, energy and manufacturing sectors.
Based by entrepreneur Yinka Atunde, Yikodeen is capitalising on rising well being and security necessities in workplaces. “With elevated regulation and the necessity for firms to conform, we’re very effectively positioned,” mentioned Adesuwa Okunbo Rhodes, Aruwa’s managing companion, in an earlier interview with How we made it in Africa.
Nigeria’s oil and gasoline trade is more and more embracing ‘native content material’ insurance policies, which require firms to prioritise Nigerian-made merchandise, rent native expertise, and companion with indigenous corporations for contracts and provides. Yikodeen has benefited from this pattern as one of many few home producers licensed by the Nationwide Content material Growth and Monitoring Board to provide security footwear to the sector.
Okunbo Rhodes additionally famous that a lot of Yikodeen’s company purchasers pay in US {dollars}, offering a pure hedge in opposition to the Nigerian naira’s steep depreciation lately. For personal fairness funds reporting returns in {dollars}, a weakening forex can shortly erode beneficial properties made by a enterprise.
With Aruwa’s backing, Yikodeen is ready to broaden its manufacturing capability. “That they had the capability to do about 30,000 pairs of security boots yearly earlier than we invested. With our funding, we’re really 10Xing that capability,” Okunbo Rhodes mentioned.
She additionally sees room for enlargement past Nigeria, citing demand throughout West Africa.
