‘We Are Passionate About Driving Growth in Africa’ – Emerging Africa Group CEO

L-R: Mrs. Felicia Sonubi, Managing Director,EAC Trustees Limited; Mr. Tobi Bondefaiye-Owope, Team Lead, Research; Mrs. Toyin F. Sanni, Group CEO, Emerging Africa Group; Mr. Ogochukwu Odum, Head, Capital Markets, Investment Banking and Ms. Ada Ijara, Managing Director, Emerging Africa Asset Management Limited, during the launch of Africa Capital Markets Report In Lagos recently.

The Emerging Africa Group has launched its maiden edition of Africa Capital Markets Report to drive its vision of making Africa a key global investment origin and destination.

While identifying key investment opportunities for existing and potential stakeholders, the report reviewed the Macro-Economic environment and activities of key Capital Markets across Africa for the previous year 2021, and presents the preview of Economic Outlook for year 2022,

Speaking at the launch ceremony which took place in Lagos, the Group Chief Executive Officer, Emerging Africa Group (EAG), Mrs. Toyin F. Sanni, expressed delight at the launch of the report.

According to her, “It is a great delight today for Emerging Africa Group to launch the first of its kind Africa Capital Markets Report. We have nursed this vision for about a year and are happy to finally bring it to birth. As you know, we aspire to be the leading catalyst for Africa’s emergence as a key global investment origin and destination.

“We want to be, as it were, in the forefront of catalyzing the development of these economies.  And in this report, we have x-rayed the top 18 capital markets in Africa, showcased the opportunities that these markets offer for investments and for investors and hopefully, would be in the position to handle and guide potential investors both within the continent and outside the continent to invest in these markets. We are very passionate about Africa’s development. We are very passionate about investment. We are very passionate about driving the growth of this continent.”

She said, “capital market access is key to economic and industrial growth, making countries less dependent on donor aid and loans from foreign governments to finance investment and expenditures.”

The Group CEO stated that “Africa Capital Market activities picked up significantly in year 2021 and look poised to do even better in 2022 creating opportunities and attractive returns for investors…”.

On how the Group can help in driving the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), she said “We need to provide the infrastructure that is required to support more African countries to trade with one another within the continent and I’m sure we are all aware of the challenges of travel being faced within Africa; as well as challenges of changing money across various currencies, and multiple jurisdictions which has been addressed by AfCFTA. I’m also aware of the settlement initiative that is led by Afreximbank, which will help us to settle transactions across the region in whichever currency and these are the type of moves that need to be made.”

“Access to finance and access to power challenges”, she said, remain across the continent, adding that there is need for more social investment across the continent and “These are some of the issues that need to be addressed for AfCFTA to succeed in its goals” she said.

Virtually present at the launch was the Chairperson Emerging Africa Group, Chief Dr. Mrs. Nike Onikepo Akande (CON), who thanked the Group CEO, Mrs. Toyin F. Sanni, for her exceptional leadership and a job well done for an exceptionally well detailed report.

The Managing Director Emerging Africa Asset Management Limited (EAAML), Ms. Adaku Ijara, in her remarks, also said that the launch of the report came at the right time when the world is looking for investment opportunities in Africa via Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) even as she commended the research team for doing a good job.

“What we are witnessing this morning is a culmination of months of hard work by our crack research team. I’m particularly excited this morning because this report represents for me, a coming into our own in terms of setting out as a group to be the leading catalyst to Africa emergence as a key global investment origin and destination.

“The report itself is well laid out, easily digestible and very enlightening as it reviews not only key happenings in Africa’s macroeconomic environment in 2021, but also identified various investment opportunities across the continent for the year 2022 especially as the world looks to Africa for investment opportunities through the AfCFTA.”

Ms. Adaku who described the report as “a valuable resource for investors to enable them to identify where there is money in 2022,” also expressed confidence that the report will be well received in the market, as “a valuable resource for all key decision-makers in the continent.”

Discussing the report, Team Lead, Research, Emerging Africa Group, Mr. Tobi Bondefaiye-Owope, gave a brief insight into the challenges they faced while preparing the report.

According to him, it was very daunting when the idea of producing a report of this scale was proposed; particularly because of the size and countries mapped out for coverage and said “I’m sure by the time you go through the report you will see exactly what I mean”

“The key challenge, however, was that of trying to present such massive information in an easy to read and exciting manner to the readers, in such a way that is not considered to be boring and I’m glad to say here that we have achieved that goal. The report is very easy to follow through without compromising on the key topical issues or data. It details a review of 2021 and gives an economic outlook for 2022, Mr. Tobi stated.

The report covered 18 African countries, namely: Nigeria, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Mali, Senegal, Togo, Burkina Faso and Niger, Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, Botswana, South Africa, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and Mauritius.

Mr. Tobi who described the Africa Capital Markets Report as a truly African report stated that the report did not focus on one country as is always the case with some reports but covered the top 18 African countries focusing on their macroeconomic situation, stock markets, debt/fixed income, capital market transactions, cryptocurrencies, investment opportunities for 2022 and focus on Emerging Africa Group.

He said the key macroeconomic indicators that they decided to include in the report are gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate, inflation, interest/monetary policy rate, debt to GDP and unemployment.

At the end of each section, according to him, there is a comparison sub-sections that provides very valuable insights, a must-read for existing and prospective investors.

He, when describing the report as a good business companion for current investors, intending investors as well as key decision-makers in various companies, institutions, and organizations, urged Nigerian businessmen and women to pick up a copy of the report as soon as possible.

To gain access to Emerging Africa’s full report please email them here – eac@emergingafrica.com