Ikponmwosa (or Ik. for short) joined Verdant Capital in August, to open Verdant Capital’s Lagos office. Verdant Capital’s office in Lagos is the firm’s fifth office in the continent, the others being Johannesburg, Accra, Kinshasa and Ebene. The physical presence in Nigeria is expected to increase the amount of business the firm executes in Nigeria, a market where Verdant Capital has been active at different stages in the cycle. Ik has over 18 years investment banking experience in West Africa. Prior to Verdant Capital, Ik performed similar roles at firms including Citi, FBN Capital / FBN Quest Merchant Bank, and […]
Patrick has joined the Johannesburg team as a Director. Patrick has over 14 years’ experience in investment management in both global private equity and microfinance investing. Patrick has worked at leading global investors including Doughty Hanson & Co, Deutsche Bank, Developing World Markets (DWM) and Incofin Investment Management. Patrick brings a broad range of skills and experience to Verdant Capital, including investment banking at Bear Stearns in New York and London, and as CFO of FINCA’s microfinance bank in the DR Congo. Patrick will be dedicated full-time to the Verdant Capital Hybrid Fund upon its first close. Verdant Capital is […]
In Cameroon, the opportunity in its mobile money sector is underpinned by high mobile penetration rates. More than 20 million Cameroonians out of an estimated population of 24 million are currently subscribing to the mobile phone and notwithstanding the reduction in subscriber numbers, significantly more Cameroonians have a mobile phone than a bank account! In Central Africa, Mobile Money Operators (MMOs) can only offer Mobile Money in partnership with banks. MMOs are doing what banks have not done i.e. serving informal or unbanked customers i.e. 85% of Cameroonians. Efforts remain to be made as so far only 5 out of 14 banks operating […]
The JSE-listed financial services group Trustco Group Holdings reported a successful completion of its formal debt term-extension process with the lender group which reflects a positive outlook and provides clarity of funding for the business going forward. The successful term-extension unlocks potential new funding for Trustco Finance. Trustco Finance works in parallel with group company, Institution of Open Learning (IOL) an accredited tertiary learning institution leveraging technology to provide remote learning on a part-time basis. Trustco Finance is the largest part of the Trustco’s banking and finance segment. The other part of the segment is Trustco Bank which has an […]
Tugende, founded in 2012 in Kampala is a leading technology-enabled productive asset financing company. It has achieved notable growth milestones including the financial and social aspects of the business. MicroFinanza completed a financial and social rating recently to support the capital raising programme arranged by Verdant Capital and was the first rating since inception. This rating produced impressive results for an institution of this size as indicated below. Its financial rating of BB Stable indicates that the institution has good risk management and financial performance. Other aspects include adequate governance and strong market position. Tugende has reached a critical scale […]
