Zenith Bank MD seeks more investments for Africa

By Collins Nweze

 

 

Group Managing Director/Chief Executive of Zenith Bank, Ebenezer Onyeagwu, has called for increased impact investments in Africa to enable the continent to attain its potential.

He gave a keynote address at the Africa Investment Risk & Compliance Summit 2021 organised by the Emerging Business Intelligence and Innovation (EBII) Group, which was held at the University of Oxford, United Kingdom last Friday.

Onyeagwu delivered his keynote address after the special keynote address by Ghana President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who was the Special Guest of Honour.

The African Union Commissioner in charge of Infrastructure and Energy, Amani Abou-Zeid, also delivered a keynote address at the summit.

Speaking on the theme: Leveraging impact investment opportunities for growth in Africa, Onyeagwu described impact investment as an investment that yields optimal returns for investors, value for all stakeholders, and guarantees continued sustenance and existence of humanity.

He decried the shallowness of Africa’s financial market, noting that no African exchange is among the Morgan Stanley developed markets index.

He noted that although the International Finance Corporation (IFC) estimates that the global investors’ appetite for impact investment could total as much as $26 trillion, only approximately eight per cent of the assets of impact intent funds are focused on Africa.

According to him, this is not significant enough, and Africa appears to be in the room, but not on the table, considering that Africa is in dire need of investment and the continent’s 1.3 billion people represent about 17 per cent of the global population of about 7.8 billion.

Citing the immense opportunities in Africa that represent enormous investment proposition for discerning investors, including the huge population, large market and active labour force, and the rich natural endowment, Onyeagwu described Africa as “the new frontier” for global growth.

He made a case for increased impact investment in Africa, noting that investment opportunities on the continent cut across agriculture, healthcare, housing, infrastructure, electricity, and the creative sectors.

Onyeagwu hopes the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) would create a single, continent-wide market for goods and services, business and investment, as being in one country on the continent grants investors access to the entire continent.

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He also called investors’ attention to Africa’s rich natural endowment, which includes 60 per cent of the world’s uncultivated arable land and nine per cent of the world’s freshwater bodies, noting that Africa holds enormous potential for organic food production.

He, therefore, implored investors in the agribusiness value chain to focus attention on Africa for organic food production instead of genetically modified food in other climes.

Onyeagwu said Zenith Bank continues to promote impact investment in Africa.

For example, the bank has maintained strong advocacy for investment in Africa through its flagship sponsorship of “Inside Africa” on CNN for 16 consecutive years, which is helping to highlight the immense creativity and talent that abound on the continent and the enormous investment opportunities on the continent of Africa.

He also said that the bank leverages its in-depth knowledge of the African market to guide investors and hedge their exposures.

According to him, the bank has been on a steady Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) investment journey, which started with ESG integration as a business strategy as well as being a signatory to the Nigerian Principles for Sustainable Banking and the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) Principles for Responsible Banking.

For its efforts, Onyeagwu noted that Zenith Bank received recognition as the “Best Company in Promotion of Gender Equality and Women Empowerment in Africa” at the 2020 Sustainability, Enterprise and Responsibility Awards (SERAS).

Onyeagwu called for a paradigm shift, noting that Africa is a work in progress, and leaders in the public and private sector should not despair. He encouraged leaders to champion the changes they want to see and to pay close attention to responsibility and accountability in leadership.

He also called for the de-risking of Africa through reforms, improved ease of doing business, respect for the rule of law and sanctity of contract, and human capital development.