One of the world’s leading investment banks, Renaissance Capital last week held its 9th Annual Pan-Africa 1:1 Conference in Lagos. The 9th Annual Pan-Africa 1:1 Investor Conference, which held between the 14th and 18th May 2018, began with an investor trip to Ghana and concluded with a two-day conference at the Intercontinental Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos.
This year’s edition was the ninth of its kind, and it kept with its tradition of providing an occasion for investors, government officials, business leaders, African economists, and Renaissance Capital analysts to share their African investment stories, with the peculiar shrewdness associated with years of working in the African investment scene.
Prominent speakers at the event included Dr Edoh Kossi Amenounve, CEO Cote D’Ivoire Stock Exchange, Tinuade Awe, Executive Director, Nigerian Stock Exchange, Patience Oniha, Director-General, Nigeria Debt Management Office, Charlie Robertson, Global Chief Economist, Renaissance Capital etc.
The conference also held closed-door 1:1 meetings between top global investors and local investors all representing more than 30 companies. These meetings featured discussions on investment opportunities in Nigeria and other African economies.
Here are the some of the most informative quotes on investments in Nigeria and Africa from the conference:
Temi Popoola, CEO Nigeria, Renaissance Capital
“This conference provides an opportunity to broaden and expand the narrative around investing in West Africa – a long-term, broad objective of fulfilling our mission to providing client solutions and ensuring we remain an innovative and ever-evolving partner to them. We hope to bring more visibility to the region and help facilitate increased capital inflows. We continue to believe Africa will be a $29 trillion economy in 2050, larger than the 2012 combined GDP of the US and the eurozone.”
Charlie Robertson, Global Chief Economist, Renaissance Capital
“300 kWh per person is needed to industrialize. there are very few instances in the last 50 years of countries with less than 300 kWh per person that have been able to industrialize. Electricity is a problem for Nigeria and East-Africa. Without it, there will be no sufficient economic growth.”
“The main challenges for investors are on the front of liquidity: how can Ghana and Nigeria increase liquidity in the near future? Nigeria is looking better on most metrics, having accelerated growth, a stable currency and rising FX reserves, but needs to improve on bank lending which remains weak”.
Mrs Patience Oniha, Director-General, Nigeria Debt Management Office
“The combination of fiscal and monetary policy strategies adopted by the federal government has delivered results on several key parameters – GDP, inflation, external reserves, FX stability, etc. This trajectory is expected to continue. The reinforcement of the ongoing strategy through other policy measures, of which the focus is on generating non-oil revenues, is one of the factors that will boost economic indicators.”
The conference also hosted a panel session that discussed the future of West African Exchanges. West African exchanges were duly represented by Dr Edoh Kossi Amenounve, CEO, Cote D’Ivoire Stock Exchange, Ekow Afedzie, Deputy Managing Director, Ghana Stock Exchange, and Tinuade Awe, Executive Director, Nigerian Stock Exchange.
The conference ended with a visit to the offices of the Nigerian Stock Exchange where Renaissance Capital rang the closing gong at the exchange.
Renaissance Capital was recently the Lead Issuing House on Nigeria’s first ever corporate infrastructure bond and first 10-year bond issued by a non-financial corporate entity (Viathan Funding Plc).
