The Federal Government of Nigeria has opened a combined $110 million debt financing window for technology and creative enterprises, split across two facilities under the Investment in Digital and Creative Enterprises (iDICE) Programme: the ₦-denominated BOI-iDICE Debt Fund, worth $45 million, and the IsDB-iDICE Murabaha Debt Fund, worth $65 million. Both are now open to eligible businesses across all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, and both fall under the FG’s wider $617 million iDICE initiative, jointly financed by the African Development Bank, Agence Française de Développement and the Islamic Development Bank, with the Bank of Industry serving as executing agency.
The IsDB-iDICE fund, the larger of the two, is structured as Murabaha, a Sharia-compliant financing model. Rather than lending cash at interest, BOI and IsDB purchase the equipment or asset a business needs and resell it to the business at an agreed price payable over time, with no interest attached. It is aimed primarily at asset financing: equipment, technology and creative infrastructure. Officials have been clear that the scheme is not restricted to Muslim applicants; it is open to all eligible Nigerian businesses regardless of faith. The companion BOI-iDICE fund follows a more conventional structure, charging a maximum interest rate of 10% per annum, with repayment terms of up to five years and a moratorium of up to six months. Both facilities finance between ₦10 million and ₦1 billion per enterprise, disbursed through the official iDICE portals at idice.ng and idice.boi.ng.
Vice President Kashim Shettima, who chairs the iDICE Steering Committee, said the programme was designed to give young entrepreneurs “a real opportunity to build or scale,” adding that the government was confident in its ability to reshape early-stage enterprise development. BOI’s own portfolio data lends some weight to that confidence: among creative and digital businesses it has previously financed, 62% recorded capacity increases above 20%, average revenue grew by 14.3%, and 13% began exporting for the first time.
For comics creators and animation studios across Nigeria and the wider continent, this is the kind of financing window that rarely gets built with them in mind, and the sector should pay close attention. Nigerian comics and animation businesses are asset-heavy in ways that are easy to overlook: a serious animation pipeline needs render-capable workstations, licensed software seats, storage and backup infrastructure; a comics publisher needs printing equipment, colour-accurate monitors, drawing tablets and studio space; a growing outfit needs all of this multiplied across a small team.
Traditional Nigerian bank lending typically prices this kind of equipment purchase with upfront interest and collateral requirements that early-stage creative businesses, whose revenue arrives project by project rather than as steady monthly cash flow, are rarely able to meet. The Murabaha structure is built around the asset itself rather than a credit score or a fixed monthly repayment profile, which more closely matches how a comic book or animation studio actually earns.
The geographic spread matters just as much as the financing structure. iDICE was explicitly designed to prevent capital from concentrating in Lagos and Abuja, and the fund is open to CAC-registered enterprises in all 36 states. For the growing number of comics and animation studios building outside Lagos and Ibadan, this removes one of the more persistent structural disadvantages of operating away from Nigeria’s traditional creative capital.
Interested comics and animation businesses should treat this as a starting point rather than a guarantee. Both facilities are administered in batches through Partner Financial Institutions, which review applications before final approval by BOI and IsDB, and the eligibility criteria for each window differ, so studios should read the requirements on the official iDICE portal carefully before applying, and confirm exactly what documentation and business history each facility expects. Enquiries can be directed to BOI’s customer support line, 0700 225 5264, or through idice.ng.
Written by Seyi Adedokun
Sources: Bank of Industry / iDICE Programme, TechCabal, Techpoint Africa, Pulse Nigeria.
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