Nimai Capital Ltd, a Dubai-based financial institution that promotes financial inclusion in South Asia and Africa, is going to invest $45 million in Bangladesh’s financial services sector.Recently, the firm has received $150 million from Victoria Commercial Bank of Kenya for the Nimai Emerging Financial Services Fund to focus on financial services in the two poorest parts in the world.Nimai Capital is planning to invest the fund into actively managed and well-diversified portfolio of financial services opportunities and aims to improve the lives of at least 1.7 million underserved customers, the firm said in a statement.“We see a great opportunity in Bangladesh’s financial services market and we believe we can add value by bringing equity and value creation strategies, which will help Bangladeshi financial services raise its bar,” CA Pankaj Mundra, a co-founder and managing partner at Nimai Capital, told The Daily Star, in an email correspondence.He says its strategic location in the Middle East would enable Diaspora banking, its key strategy to serve the underserved non-resident Bangladeshis working in the region through future portfolio companies in Bangladesh.The firm has been operating in Bangladesh since 2011 advising financial institutions and corporates on project and trade finance. Currently, it is managing a new private equity fund as well.The initial target geographies of the Nimai Emerging Financial Services Fund will be Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, India, Kenya, Tanzania, and Ghana.“While there is a strong need to develop financial services across all countries in Africa and Asia, but these markets have been specifically chosen based on the existing presence and experience in these markets,” it said.
