Africa Investment Roundtable, a research-based thought leadership platform providing in-depth examination of the African investment landscape, goes live on Monday with its debut conference exploring the investment outlook for Africa in 2021.
BusinessDay spoke with the production team which include frontline women professionals, Arunma Oteh, Toyin Sanni and Chinwe Egwim, to glean some insight into the broader goals of the initiative and what to expect from AiR. Excerpts:
You have a well packed executive production team with Arunma Oteh, Toyin Sanni and Chinwe Egwim. What does each one bring to the table in terms of the work Africa Investment Roundtable (AiR) plans to do?
Arunma Oteh OON, an Academic Scholar at the University of Oxford and Toyin F. Sanni, the Group CEO Emerging Africa Capital Group and co-founders of AiR, are investment experts and seasoned professionals with more than seven decades combined experience in Africa’s financial services sector. Each of them has occupied major leadership positions in respected financial organizations and are seasoned experts in capital markets, investment banking, money markets, and finance with enviable track records.
Arunma is a globally acknowledged capital markets and development finance expert who has served at different times as Vice-President and Treasurer at the World Bank, and as Director General, Securities and Exchange Commission, Nigeria, and Group Vice President and Group Treasurer, African Development Bank. She brings on board her skills as a scholar at the University of Oxford, her intellectual prowess, as well as perspective gained operating at the highest levels of international finance, investment and development.
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Toyin brings not just her expertise as a prominent African Investment banker who has run two leading investment banking firms, including Emerging Africa Capital, which she founded and where she currently leads her team to provide effective funding solutions to Africa governments and businesses but her perspective as an entrepreneur and investor herself. Having, in the course of her career, successfully packaged, distributed and monitored investments of over USD10 Billion within Africa, and authored a guide on investing in Africa, she has an eye for what works and doesn’t.
Chinwe Egwim, who is a Senior Economist at FBNQuest, is a seasoned economist and author with over 500 published economic notes covering global and domestic economic trends with a view to ensuring the African economic landscape is better understood.
We seek to create better awareness on the African investment landscape, and on financial opportunities and relevant developments in the African economy, particularly in the post -COVID19 era, all in a bid to better position the continent’s markets and businesses for investments from within and outside Africa.
When it starts, AiR will highlight important trends, issues and possible solutions geared towards economics, finance and development, what are some of such trends that you are looking forward to discussing and why?
AiR will highlight critical trends and issues for consideration by African governments, businesses and people as well as for domestic, regional and international players interested in the opportunities that Africa offers.
These issues include COVID19 induced shifts in demand and supply of products and services, trends in labour mobility, the continent’s key infrastructure needs and how these can be turned into profitable investment opportunities.
They will also cover the progress of critical reform initiatives across the region, comparative performance and competitiveness of markets as well as developments in financial markets, technology trends and sustainability initiatives. We will highlight the important opportunities that the new climate economy offers and explore innovative ways for domestic and global investors to explore and benefit from Africa’s enormous wealth. AiR will explore the unique ways in which the African Continental Free Trade Area, which became effective on 1st January 2021, can catalyze inclusive growth across Africa.
Funding the real sector and economic diversification from commodity dependence to sectors like agribusiness, manufacturing and technology as well as the need for critical investments in education and healthcare will be important conversations for us.
What are your expectations of what AIR will do in bringing more women into the conversation of development economics?
A platform on investment and finance hosted by frontline women professionals is sending a clear message to men and women alike which is that to achieve inclusive growth, everyone must be able to contribute to their highest potential. There’s nothing masculine about finance and investment and there’s no justification for so many women to be left out of both the discuss on money and investment and the actual economic value chain.
We are very passionate about women empowerment and women inclusion especially in finance and investment and at all levels including leadership. We hope this platform will not just inform, intellectually develop and equip men and women for greater and more successful participation in investments particularly on the African continent, but that it will inspire and motivate more women to step into our markets and economic environments as players, operators and regulators. We expect AiR platform to encourage more women to get actively involved in finance, economics, governance, policy development, wealth creation and will use this platform to highlight the myriad of investment opportunities that are available within the region and how everyone can contribute without gender limitations.
How will AIR address the supposed gap you have identified in in-depth, up to date information and analysis on Africa’s key markets, sectors and players?
AiR will collaborate with key market players and industry experts as well as thought leadership and research institutions for timely market intelligence; data and insights, relevant for consideration to provide balanced, rich and comprehensive insight for all who participate in our events and read our materials.
