Investing in African Real Estate

Bright Owusu-Amofah is the CEO of Appolonia City, the largest mixed-use, master-planned urban development in Ghana by Rendeavour, Africa’s largest urban land developer. Mr. Owusu-Amofah is a finance and investment professional with experience in real estate, venture capital, private equity, and investment banking in Ghana and across the West African region. He was previously a Senior Analyst at Black Star Advisors and Renaissance Group and has worked in various roles in investment banking and in the financial services sector, including as an Accounts Manager at Barclaycard in the U.K. Mr. Owusu-Amofah holds an MSc in Finance from the University of Lincoln (U.K.) and has completed the Harvard Business School’s Real Estate Management Program.

Hafeez Giwa is Managing Partner of HC Capital Properties, a privately held real estate investment and development firm based in Abidjan and London that invests in retail, office, hospitality, and multifamily assets across West and Central Africa, including Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, and Senegal. Previously, Mr. Giwa was an Investment Principal at Actis, a leading global emerging markets investment firm, and a Senior Financial /IB Analyst at Morgan Stanley. He holds a B.A. in Finance from Howard University School of Business and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Kfir Rusin is the Commercial Director at Terrace Africa, a commercial property development company focused on Zambia, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, as well as the Managing Director of API Events, Africa’s leading real estate platform. At both companies, he is responsible for managing operations and forging the direction of the business, as well as providing support for capital and debt raising and new developments for Terrace Africa. Kfir  is also the founder of the Africa Proptech Forum, and has more than seven years of African real estate and events experience.

Tola Akinhanmi is an investment banker who has had various roles within corporate and investment banking, with specializations in real estate finance as well as project and structured finance. Mr. Akinhanmi has over 15 years of in-country and regional work experience (including Nigeria, Ghana, and Côte d’Ivoire) which spans across various asset classes (with an estimated portfolio size over US$1.5 billion) within the real estate sector. In addition, his project finance deal mandates include debt capital raising for major infrastructure projects in the oil and gas industry sectors. Mr. Akinhanmi’s early work experiences include treasury operations and commercial banking roles in Fidelity Bank and Intercontinental Bank (now Access Bank) in Nigeria, respectively.