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Africa’s private capital leaders gathered last week for the third annual Africa Prosperity Summit (APS), hosted by Ventures Platform, to define a new chapter of verifiable and scalable growth on the continent. Held from November 12–14, 2025, under the theme “Growing the Pie: Building the Pathways for Liquidity, Scale, and Enduring Returns,” the Summit created a focused forum for investors, operators, and ecosystem stakeholders to examine the forces shaping Africa’s next decade of capital formation and liquidity.
Over three days, participants from key African and global markets underscored the urgent need for clear liquidity benchmarks. Senior executives—among them Temi Popoola (GMD/CEO, NGX Group Plc), Tosin Eniolorunda (CEO, Moniepoint), Chirantan Patnaik (Director, VC at British Investment International), and Lexi Novitske (General Partner, Norrsken22)—led strategic discussions dissecting the real drivers of scale. They explored the structural obstacles inhibiting liquidity, including regulatory constraints, FX restrictions, and capital controls.
Ventures Platform Founding Partner, Kola Aina, opened the Summit by asserting that Africa is at a pivotal inflection point where liquidity—not just capital—has become the key determinant of scale. He stressed that closing the continent’s liquidity gap, fuelled by limited exit routes and underdeveloped acquisition and listing markets, will require building acquisition-ready companies, deepening corporate participation in exits, bolstering listing readiness, and developing Africa-relevant liquidity innovations capable of shaping long-term prosperity.
In his keynote, Chirantan Patnaik delivered a data-rich analysis of capital flows across Africa’s innovation landscape, clarifying who is deploying capital, what LPs demand, and how fund managers must evolve. Drawing comparisons with Latin America and India, he situated Africa’s liquidity challenges within a global pattern of market maturation and exit evolution—anchoring subsequent conversations on DPI, sustainability, and institutional preparedness.
Reflecting on the Summit’s mission, Dotun Olowoporoku, Managing Partner at Ventures Platform, noted: “We created the Africa Prosperity Summit three years ago not to host another event, but to align the ecosystem around what truly drives growth. As this year demonstrated, unlocking liquidity and scale requires collaboration and trusted intelligence. Africa’s next frontier will depend not just on attracting capital, but earning it through transparency, resilience, and consistent performance.”
The conversations spanned beyond equity, exploring venture debt, blended finance, and revenue-based financing as alternative instruments for enabling cross-border scale. Participants emphasized the need for authoritative metrics on exit performance to guide investment strategies and policy decisions. The importance of mobilising local capital, strengthening talent and operational structures, and developing robust exit strategies emerged as critical factors for scaling African companies.
A fireside chat titled “The Road to a Billion: Raising, Scaling, and Building Trust at Scale” featured Dotun Olowoporoku and Moniepoint CEO Tosin Eniolorunda, who outlined what it takes to grow African companies to billion-dollar valuations. Both leaders reiterated that sustainable scale in Africa requires harmonizing ambition with discipline—blending bold vision with operational rigor, building ecosystems of trust, and leveraging deep local insight for cross-border profitability and resilience.
The Summit also marked the unveiling of the first-ever African Exit Index, presented by Michael Famoroti, Head of Research at Stears. The continuously updated, publicly accessible index aims to benchmark exit performance and equip investors and policymakers with data-driven guidance for strategic capital deployment.
Now in its third consecutive year, the Africa Prosperity Summit continues to play a critical role in translating high-level dialogue into actionable strategies and trusted intelligence for long-term, scalable growth. APS 2025 was proudly sponsored by G. Elias, Aluko & Oyebode, Iron Capital, and Google for Startups Accelerator Africa, and curated in collaboration with partners including AVCA, Algebra Ventures, Miva University, Novastar, Wimbart, 7 Generations Institute, and TLP Advisory.
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The Africa Prosperity Summit (APS) is a premier, invite-only convening of investors, fund managers, policymakers, founders, and development partners shaping the future of innovation and capital on the continent. Hosted by Ventures Platform and co-curated with leading ecosystem partners, APS is designed to enable candid dialogue, foster strategic partnerships, and unlock pathways to scalable, long-term prosperity.
