Aduragbemi Omiyale
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The Managing Director of Zedcrest Group, Mr Adedayo Amzat, will join other important personalities to speak at the 20th edition of Africa Business Summit (ABS) scheduled for the London Business School, the United Kingdom on Saturday, May 14, 2022.
The summit is themed Africa Post-Pandemic: Unlocking the Next Frontier of Growth and has Zedcrest as a silver sponsor as part of its desire to promote an inclusive economy in Africa and to further extend the company’s prosperity inclusion advocacy to Africans in diaspora, and foreign investors.
The Minister, Secretary General, Presidency of Ivory Coast, Abdourahmane Cissé and the Director of Google West Africa, Juliet Ehimuan, are the keynote speakers.
On the panel with Mr Amzat are Admassu Tadesse, President of TDB Group; Serge Ekué, President at BOAD (West African Development Bank); Kudazyi Hove, Entrepreneur and Board Member; Caleb Usoh, Country Director (Nigeria) at OCP SA; Ido Sum, Partner at TLcom Capital; Jonathan Brenton, Head of International Trade at Pernod Ricard; Dr Davis Musinguzi, Co-Founder & CEO at Rocket Health; Eren Kelekci, Chief Investment Officer, Food and Agriculture at African Development Bank Group.
Others include Habiba Ben Barka, Chief of Africa Section at UNCTAD; Colin Coleman, former CEO Goldman Sachs SSA, Yale Fellow; Fani Titi, CEO at Investec; Joseph-Alain Saraka, Chief Strategy Officer at ARISE; Peter Nyeko, co-founder and Managing Director of Mandulis Energy; Ibrahim Sagna, Director Advisory & Capital Markets at Afrexim; Mohamed Dabbour, CEO at Aesthina Partners Ltd and Thione Niang, founder at JeufZone Farm.
Commenting ahead of the event, Mr Amzat said, “With 70 per cent of Africa’s population under the age of 30, the continent is really the last frontier for global companies and investors hunting for the next big markets to deploy both capital and products.
“The continent has also witnessed a huge leap in the quantum and quality of entrepreneurial efforts, particularly in the emerging technology world. African founders have proven that they are world-class in applying innovative technologies in solving our everyday problems.
“However, the local capital markets haven’t developed enough to facilitate this growth, leading to a disproportionate reliance on foreign capital.
“Domestic capital pools from the Banks, Pension Funds, Asset Managers and HNIs will need to be mobilised to support the growth of innovation on the continent.”
He opined that the number of deals and funding in African startups has been growing over the last few years, and the ratification of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) could also boost the African startup ecosystem by creating the biggest Free Trade Area in the world.
The Africa Business Summit has established itself as a leading forum for shaping an integrated and innovative perspective on Africa’s future. It is a student-led initiative of the London Business School (LBS) that attracts an audience of over 500 investors, policymakers, business leaders, professionals, diaspora, students, and alumni.
Zedcrest Group is the parent company of Zedvance Finance Limited, a leading consumer lending firm; Zedcap Partners, a foremost securities brokerage firm engaging in the broking of financial products in sub-Saharan Africa Over-the-counter (OTC) Fixed Income and currencies markets (FICC). Zimvest, an asset management firm licensed by the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) is also a subsidiary of the group.
It was recently recognised as the fastest-growing firm in Nigeria’s financial services sector, the second fastest-growing company in the country and the fifth fastest-growing in Africa in the 2022 Financial Times ranking for Africa’s Fastest Growing Companies published on its official website.
