Tokunboh Ishmael is the SIA-Africa Person of the Month for August 2018. Ms. Ishmael is the co-founder and managing director of Alitheia Capital, a Nigerian based investment management firm focused on channeling private equity investments to transform businesses in West Africa and help enhance access to finance, energy and housing for small and growing businesses and low-income households. She also founded Alitheia Identity, a pioneering private equity fund that focuses on searching for, identifying and funding female-led founder and co-founder businesses in six countries : Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Lesotho, and helps to ensure greater participation of women at all levels of business. She aims to help to invest and build sustainable SME growth businesses across attractive, consumer-led sectors on behalf of discerning institutions, development organizations and corporations looking for a mix of responsible investing, economic impact and social responsibility.
Ms. Ishmael has over 20 years experience in investment banking, private equity investing, technology and new business development in the U.S., Europe and Africa. Before funding Alitheia, she was managing director of Avante Capital Ltd. where she advised on a number of acquisitions in the oil and gas sector, including the acquisition and financing of a government-owned refinery, and led the first secondary listing of a Nigerian company on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. Prior to Avante, she was the Nigeria Country Partner for Aureos Capital where she successfully raised funding to complete a $50 million (USD) fundraising exercise for the Aureos West Africa Fund and sourced private equity investments. Other prior roles include M&A banker at Salomon Smith Barney, and fund manager of a technology focused venture capital fund, Sussex Place Ventures.
Ms. Ishmael has received advanced degrees from Queen Mary University of London, NYU Stern School of Business and London Business School. She is also a Yale World Fellow. She is a chartered financial analyst and a member of the CFA Institute, a member of the board of the African Venture Capital Association and First City Monument Bank, and a panelist on the TV show, Dragons Den Nigeria. For her work to help lower-income households and women-founded or run businesses in Africa, we celebrate Tokunboh Ishmael as SIA-Africa's August 2018 Person of the Month.
