Private Equity firm KKR to make Nigeria regional base

U.S. private equity firm KKR & Co LP is considering making Nigeria its regional hub and investing around $100 million in Africa within a year, a senior executive said this week.

KKR is looking at the agriculture and food business, the energy industry and infrastructure projects, Dominique Lafont, a senior advisor at KKR, told Reuters during a visit with a French business delegation to Nigeria.

“We want to use Nigeria as regional base and springboard for West Africa,” he said. “We are not limited to one sector.”

KKR had appointed Lafont in July to help expand its Africa business.

Carlyle Group, one of the world’s largest private equity houses, in December made its first investment in Nigeria, spending nearly $150m to take an 18 per cent stake in Diamond Bank, a big lender in Africa’s largest economy, while Blackstone entered a partnership with Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, to invest across the region.