Kuramo Capital Hosts Young Professionals Networking Mixer

June 1, 2015

Kuramo Capital Management was delighted to host a special networking event in partnership with the Nigeria Higher Education Foundation on May 20, 2015. Held at our New York office, the event brought together the city’s African young professionals to engage in discussion over the role of higher education in driving economic growth with a keynote address from Walé Adeosun, Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Kuramo Capital. Walé also serves as President of the Nigeria Higher Education Foundation.

Mr. Adeosun spoke about the tremendous growth that lies ahead for Nigeria and the importance of higher education in improving the Nigerian economy and creating lasting democratic institutions. Evidenced by the voter turnout at the recently concluded national elections, Mr. Adeosun highlighted the tremendous population growth taking place in Nigeria and the potential it represents if this expanding workforce is harnessed effectively. In his remarks, he noted that Nigeria registered almost 70 million unique adults over the age of 18 that are eligible to vote. Since voter turnout in most places in the world usually represents less than half of the eligible population and we assume 50% in this case, that means Nigeria has 140 million adults over the age of 18 and given that this is a young population, the official population figures do not reflect the true population of the country.

Mr. Adeosun also voiced Kuramo’s sentiments and re-iterated our focus on capturing the sub-Saharan Africa growth opportunity, particularly in Nigeria through private equity investments. Organizations like the NHEF that are dedicated to providing young people with education and skills could help produce a workforce that is a significant source of consumption and production, which in turn has an impact on our ability to generate attractive returns for our partners.