Ola Brown, founder of the Flying Doctors Healthcare Investment Company (FDHIC) and an investor working in venture capital and healthcare infrastructure with a Masters in Finance and Economic Policy, has said that businesses of the future are going to be funded by venture capital.
Speaking during the the Investment Banking Awards Dinner, which held at Civic Centre in Lagos State, where panel discussion was on the topic, ‘The Future of Money: Prospects for Equity Capital Raising in Nigeria,’ Brown said that stock market-focused economies that lean towards equity turn out to be more innovative and dynamic.
“Equity investment is not just important for the people in the room – the Stock Exchange and Issuing Houses – but also important for creating wealth for Nigerians and the whole of Africa,” she said.
Brown has invested in over 30 startups in the health tech and fintech space, with total investment portfolio worth $500m.
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Also speaking at the event, Haruna Jalo-Waziri, managing director and CEO of the Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS), reiterated the critical role of leveraging technology to raise equity capital for businesses, using the MTN listing as a case study.
Speaking on the importance of liquidity on the Nigerian Stock Exchange to ease the exit process for equity investors, Danladi Verheijen, Managing Director of Verod Capital emphasized the 40 percent increase in market turnover at the end of Q2 on the NSE compared to the concerns market watchers had in Q1 following the single day 20 percent drop in March 2022.
At the event, the Association of Issuing Houses of Nigeria recognized the contributions of its members as well as key players in the development and growth of the industry in the last year.
The Investment Banking Awards Dinner is an annual event which brings together members of the Association of Issuing Houses of Nigeria, Chief Executives of all Investment Banks in Nigeria, Captains of Industry, Investors and Political Leaders, with the objective of recognising their meritorious contributions to the achievement and growth recorded in the industry over the past year.
