Boma Achenimie 
According to a recent report by the Africa Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (AVCA), Nigeria emerged as the top destination for venture capital investments in 2022.
This was contained in the continental body’s report titled“, 2022 AVCA Venture Capital in Africa Report”, adding that Nigeria surpassed other nations to account for 22% of the total.
The report partly read, “West Africa continued to be the most active region for the second year in a row, with Nigeria leading both the continent and the region in terms of activity.
“West Africa attracted the largest proportion of venture capital deal volume in Africa (30 percent), driven by Nigeria which was the most active country by volume at 22 percent.”
On the continent, the financials industry accounted for 42% of the continent’s total deal value and 31% of its volume.
Additionally, in 2022, international investors made up 77% of investors in Africa’s venture sector, while African investors made up 23%.
Africa raised $5.2 billion in venture capital in 786 deals in 2022, accounting for 3% of the overall volume and 1.2 % of the total value of venture funding globally.
With the inclusion of venture debt, venture inflows to Africa last year rose to $6.5 bn raised across 853 deals.
The report also found that startups raising their first round of venture financing only accounted for 37 percent of VC deal volume in 2022 and startups with a gender-diverse founding team raised a cumulative total of close to US$950 million.
While the global venture market experienced significant contractions in startup funding to varying regional degrees, Africa’s venture ecosystem was relatively
stable and only experienced a funding drop of less than US$50 million compared to 2021.
Comparatively, Latin America saw the biggest year-on-year declines in startup funding to the tune of 59 percent followed by Asia which saw contractions of 35 percent. Consequently, the funding gap between Africa’s closest socio-economic comparator, Latin America, saw a near-fivefold decrease from US$14.8 billion in 2021 to US$3.1 billion in 2022.
The report added that although the volume and value of venture capital in Africa are relatively small compared to other regions such as North America and Asia, it has been growing steadily in recent years and shows potential for further growth in the future.
