Panelist
speaker
Moderator
conference Team

Eric Idiahi

Investor, Venture Builder
Eric Idiahi

Eric Idiahi is a financier and venture-builder of numerous African companies. He was most recently Managing Director of Tangerine Financial Services a Financial Services Group and was also Partner and co-founder of Verod Capital Management Limited, an Africa-Focused Private Equity firm he co-founded in 2008. At Verod, Eric led several notable mergers, acquisitions, and investments in the technology, financial services, education, and pharmaceutical sectors. He currently sits on the board of Eleva Group an Oil and Gas Firm, and The Museum of African Art (MOWAA) and has previously served on the Board of several companies including EMZOR Pharmaceutics Industries Limited, Greensprings Educational Services Limited, Rainbow Educational Services Limited, Central Securities Clearing Systems (CSCS) Limited, Tangerine Financial Limited, African Lifestyle Limited, and Lancaster University, Ghana. Eric is also an avid ART collector.

Eric has a BSc in Economics from the University of Houston and an MBA from Saïd Business School, University of Oxford.

Agenda

More Info
Breakout 2
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Saturday
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11:25 am
Aldrich 108
Finance
Growing Africa's SME sector through enterpreneurship through acquisition (ETA)
Unlocking value, attracting talent, and accelerating the growth and development of SMEs in Africa through ETA
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Growing Africa's SME sector through enterpreneurship through acquisition (ETA)

Although Entrepreneurship through Acquisition (ETA)— where entrepreneurs search for and acquire stable, cash-flow positive businesses to grow them over time—is growing in popularity across North America, few “search funds” have been established in Africa. Indeed, there has been limited data to support the case for investing in African search funds and the benefits of this novel asset class. 

Still, ETA remains uniquely positioned to unlock value, attract talent, and accelerate the growth and development of SMEs—particularly family businesses—across the continent. This panel will focus on three key questions: 

(1) Is Africa ripe for the growth of search funds? 

(2) How can the traditional search fund model be adapted to work in/for the African context? 

(3) What other models can we leverage to see more African ETAs? 

(4) Share some success stories and what we can learn from them.

America/New_York
Feb 17, 2024 11:25 AM
Aldrich 108