The first in the series of breakfast meetings organized by Business World, Ghana’s foremost business magazine, in partnership with MTN, the leading mobile telecommunication company in the country, kicked off on a high note with issues on venture capital finance and private equity participation holistically addressed.
The meeting, themed, “Attracting Venture Capital and Private Equity for your Business,” was addressed by such venture capital specialists as Daniel Duku of the Venture Capital Trust Fund, Stephen Antwi-Asimeng, a Senior Partner at Fidelity Capital Partners Limited (FCPL), MawuliAbabio, the former Managing Director of the African Venture Capital Association (AVCA) and Jacob Kholi of Aureos Capital.
The event, which was highly patronized also saw in attendance business magnates and financial experts such as TogbeAfede of SAS, Mary-Jean Moyo, Country Manager of the International Finance Corporation, DolapoOgundimu, Managing Director of GTBank, Ghana, KwesiAmoafoYeboah, Chairman of i-Tel Limited, and a host of other business executives.
In his opening remarks, Daniel Duku disclosed that the Venture Capital Trust Fund will launch a US $100 million Angel Fund to provide support for more start-up companies in the country. He further reiterated the VCTF’s readiness to enter into more Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) with strategic investors to generate more money into the Fund.
The meeting facilitated the breaking of the myths around venture capital financing and private equity in the country, as the friendly atmosphere encouraged participants to quiz the venture capitalists directly. They in turn addressed all questions in an open and frank manner. Some of these questions bordered on the criteria set out by Venture Capital companies for businesses to meet before getting the needed assistance and the level of finance available to businesses.
Though venture capital companies generally have standard criteria used in assessing businesses that apply for assistance, it was revealed that each of the venture capital finance companies had their own areas of interest with respect to where to put their investments as well as how much they could disburse or invest at any given time.
Stephen Asimeng, sharing his thoughts on some of the criteria that venture capital companies have set out to guide them in putting their monies in private businesses, hinted that venture capital companies mainly look out for the entrepreneur behind the business; the management of the business and their track record in managing any business; the business plan, and in his words, “how dynamic the business plan is in anticipating changes” in the business world; and most importantly, the profitability of the business.
MawuliAbabio, on his part, extolled the achievements of venture capital finance companies across Africa, particularly highlighting their contribution in the growth of the retail industries. He revealed that venture capital finance companies were very adept at scrutinizing business plans and thus admonished prospective applicants for venture capital finance to “take ownership of their business plans” by knowing every detail of the plan and not to rely on expertise of their advisors.
Participants expressed their appreciation to the organizers for the important platform provided for business owners, financial experts and captains of industry to meet and discuss issues on financing options for businesses.