Naomi Gabriel —

A property technology firm has launched an investment platform to raise project finance for small construction and development companies.

The firm, Propcrowdy said in a statement that it is an inclusionary crowdfunding investment platform set up to afforf many who earn minimum wage to access and climb up the real estate investment ladder in Africa.

Following the approval and licensing of the platform by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the firm stated that it became the only platform in Nigeria authorised for crowdfunding business under the rules and guidelines of the SEC.

The statement also revealed that the start-up focuses on two main target audiences, which are Nigerians who earn $80 to $1,000 monthly.

“It is estimated that over 127m Nigerians fall into this category and small and medium enterprise real estate developers whose annual turnover is less than $5m are over 3,600”, it said.

The Chief Executive Officer of the firm, Roland Igbinoba, disclosed that SEC had recently prohibited the activities of all agritech and crowdfunding investment platforms due to the massive failure and fraudulent activities of many of the platforms.

“SEC had observed with concern the fraudulent activities of some unregistered investment crowdfunding platforms and had strongly advised the investing public against making an investment with or through any crowdfunding platform not registered with the commission, he said.

“The commission, in recognition of the potentials and importance of crowdfunding platforms and the need to protect investors through effective regulation, had in January 2021, published its crowdfunding rules and requested well-intending crowdfunding platforms to register with it”.

He noted that in order to build investors’ confidence and trust, Propcrowdy had to secure a crowdfunding license from SEC, adding that Propcrowdy was incorporated in 2019 when there was no regulation for crowdfunding.