Nigeria is winning the New Money even though we have lost the Old Money. Yes, from the old century foreign direct investment to investment in stock exchanges to private equity money, Nigeria is not ranked in the top 10 in Africa. But when you move into the money of the future (venture capital funds), Nigeria has no competitor in Africa. Three years ago, all of Africa raised $1.16 billion; this year, Nigeria alone raised $1.37 billion.
I expect Nigeria to hit $2 billion VC funds in 2022 as most VCs begin to invest via Nigeria into Africa. South Africa has lost that position and Nigeria is well at the center now.
So the report published by the Egyptian agency does not tell the whole story. Of course, this is not to say that Nigeria must not do better in the old money.
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Winning on both the New and Old Money is not mutually exclusive, just that different actions fuel the outcomes. Fintech dominates the catch on the New Money because the economy is heavily cash based, with traditional banks not doing enough to include considerable size of the population in the financial system, so the temptation/attraction to play in that space is essentially irresistible.
For the Old Money, I do think that Nigeria can easily become the leader there post 2023 elections, because the countries currently leading don’t really have what it takes to maintain their present positions, so everyone is waiting for Nigeria to press the reset button, and majority of the investments will make their way to here.
Two things have hurt Nigeria severely, the political leadership exhibited in management of insecurity and discontent in the land, it demarketed Nigeria so much, making the country worse than it is. The second issue is our uncertain monetary policy, it’s confusing to canvass for capital inflow without providing convincing clarity and assurance on repatriation, so the feeling is that any dollar that flows in is trapped.
Nigeria can easily win on both counts, but we first need to provide leadership where it matters.