On Monday, April 18th, Kuramo Capital Management had the pleasure of hosting Nigeria’s Finance Minister, the Honorable Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, at the Harvard Club of New York in midtown Manhattan for a private lunch and group discussion with institutional investors during her first official visit to New York.
As Finance Minister, Mrs. Adeosun is responsible for managing, controlling and monitoring the revenues and expenditures of one of Africa’s largest nations. Mrs. Adeosun was previously the Commissioner of Finance of Ogun State and brings tremendous private sector and public sector experience to her current role.
Following a detailed presentation during which she discussed efforts being made to address Nigeria’s current economic challenges and highlighted the steps being taken to diversify the economy, over 50 guests were treated to an interactive discussion with the Minister. Many were eager to hear more about the current debate over currency devaluation, expectations for near-term output growth and the strategies being contemplated to address the shortfall in government revenue being experienced as a result of the contraction of commodity prices. In her remarks, Mrs. Adeosun noted that Nigeria’s resilience in such a time of macroeconomic uncertainty will depend on pursuing a policy of more prudent application and management of the country’s foreign exchange; identifying and blocking areas of inefficiency in public sector procurement and the on-going massive cleaning up of the public sector payroll.
Mrs. Adeosun confirmed that her office has commenced an aggressive program of fiscal housekeeping aimed at increasing revenues and reducing recurrent expenses and estimated that billions of Naira could be saved through devices created by the Efficiency Unit in her office. We at Kuramo Capital believe in the importance of open dialogue between investors, practitioners and public officials and are pleased to facilitate opportunities for deliberating practical ideas on how to reduce risk in investments, encourage business development and increase capital flow in Africa.
