Popoola: Renaissance Investor Conference will Boost Investment in W’Africa

The chief Executive Officer Nigeria, Renaissance Capital, Temi Popoola has said that the firm’s 9th Annual Pan-Africa 1:1 investor Conference held in Lagos recently provided an opportunity to broaden and expand the narrative around investing in West Africa.

Renaissance Capital, a leading emerging and frontier markets investment bank held the Pan-Africa 1:1 investor Conference, following a bespoke investor trip to Ghana and the successful completion of its investor conferences in Russia and South Africa in April.

Now in its ninth year, the conference has continued to provide the opportunity to hear first-hand from prominent government officials, opinion leaders and economists in the region, alongside Renaissance Capital analysts, who collectively shared African insights and presented high-opportunity corporate stories.

The conference, according to the organisers, also served as a platform for closed-door 1:1 meetings between top global and local investors from across the globe and over thirty corporate representatives to discuss investment opportunities in Nigeria and other fast-growing economies on the continent.

Popoola said: “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.”

In her investor address, the Director-General, Nigeria Debt Management Office, Mrs. Patience Oniha, said: “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 played host to a panel session covering the future of West African Exchanges, with participation from 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 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”, said Renaissance Capital Global Chief Economist, Charles Robertson.

He added: “The cyclical story is again improving for much of Africa as commodities pick up. The credit rating downgrade cycle is basically finished. We think Nigeria will have one of the strongest growth accelerations in Africa in 2018, while the currency is well supported for 2018.”

Renaissance Capital most recently acted as 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) – a deal that has been nominated by the 2018 African Banker Awards for Deal of the Year (debt category) – and as Joint Lead Manager for the largest combined new issue and liability management offering ever by a Nigerian issuer (Fidelity Bank).