Ernst & Young Nigeria has said that private equity investment will play an important role in the growth of Nigerian economy.
The Partner, Transaction & Advisory Services, Ernst & Young, Mr. Bisi Sanda, said during the presentation of a survey entitled, 'Harvesting growth: How do private equity investors create value?' in Lagos recently that private equity investors were well positioned to take advantage of many of the favourable market opportunities in Nigeria and other African countries.
Ernst & Young said Africa's economic development in the last few years had been impressive.
He said a lot of countries across the continent had started appreciating the benefits of government and economic reforms and increased Foreign Direct Investment flows.
This, according to him, in addition to the steady rate of investments by development finance institutions, has enabled the creation of a viable and vibrant private equity market.
He said, "Over the last 10 years, Africa's economic output has increased threefold to $2tn, and six African countries have been among the 10 fastest-growing economies in the world. Africa's economic development over the last few years has been impressive, with many countries across the continent starting to see the benefits of government and economic reforms and increased FDI flows.
"Africa's private equity houses are clearly working closely with the management teams they back to create value in companies. This partnership approach is particularly important, given the high incidence of minority stakes in the markets — 80 per cent of our samples were minority stakes."
