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Nigerian industrialist Solomon Kayode Onafowokan is tapping the debt market again as his company, Coleman Technical Industries, offers up to N50 billion ($37.0 million) in short term notes to fund operations and expansion.
The offer, arranged by investment firm Afrinvest, covers Series 5 and Series 6 commercial paper under Coleman’s wider N100 billion ($74.1 million) programme. The company is pitching two maturities, a 182 day note and a 270 day note, aimed at investors looking for fixed income exposure to a large local manufacturer.
Coleman is best known for making electrical wires and cables that end up everywhere Nigerians rarely think about until something fails, power lines, housing projects, industrial plants and major construction sites. The company supplies products used by utilities, contractors and manufacturers, and it has marketed itself as an indigenous alternative to imported cable in a sector where quality and standards matter.
Onafowokan founded the business in 1975 and has spent decades building it into a recognizable industrial brand. In Nigeria’s business scene he is often described as a manufacturing holdout, an owner who stayed committed to factory expansion even when trading and imports offered faster returns. That reputation has grown as the company pushes into newer infrastructure markets tied to broadband and data.
The latest commercial paper offer sets a minimum subscription of N5 million ($3,704) with additional investments in increments of N1,000 (about $0.74). Proceeds are expected to support working capital, including raw materials, inventory and day to day funding needs that rise when factories increase output.
The timing is not accidental. Coleman has been scaling aggressively, and the headline move is fibre optics. The company recently opened a large fibre optic cable factory in Sagamu, Ogun State, pitching it as a major local supply source for Nigeria’s broadband buildout and a potential export platform for the region. The facility was presented as capable of producing about nine million kilometres of fibre optic cable annually, a figure meant to signal industrial scale rather than pilot production.
The Sagamu investment is part of a wider push to control more of the supply chain. Coleman has also pointed to new capacity in copper and aluminium processing, including a continuous casting smelter plant in Sagamu, designed to reduce exposure to currency swings and imported inputs. In plain terms, the company wants to buy fewer finished materials from abroad and do more processing at home, even if it takes longer and costs more upfront.
Commercial paper has become a popular tool for Nigerian corporates trying to balance growth with expensive bank borrowing. Instead of locking into long loans, companies raise shorter tenor funds and roll them as needed. That strategy can work when sales are steady, but it also demands tight cash management, especially in manufacturing where input costs can jump quickly.
Coleman’s expansion story has also been tied to big infrastructure contracts and workforce plans. The company has cited a supply relationship connected to Nigeria LNG’s Train 7 project, and it has spoken publicly about training initiatives linked to fibre handling and installation skills as the market for network deployment grows.
The new fundraising gives Onafowokan more room to keep the machines running, build inventory and defend market share at a moment when Nigeria’s power and connectivity projects are pushing demand for both traditional cables and fibre.
