When conversations about Africa’s economic transformation come up, buzzwords like “impact investing” often float around—sometimes sounding abstract, sometimes dismissed as elite boardroom jargon. But for those who gathered on May 28th, 2025, at the exclusive Capital Club Lagos, the idea of impact wasn’t just theoretical. It was tangible, personal, and immediate.
The Africa Impact Summit Tour, a warm-up to the continent’s flagship Africa Impact Summit happening in Accra, Ghana, made a deliberate stop in Nigeria’s bustling commercial hub to do something rare: strip the formality, foster candid conversations, and anchor big investment commitments in local realities.
Hosted by the Impact Investors Foundation (Nigeria), the event pulled together influential names: Etemore Glover, Ibukun Awosika, Elizabeth Boggs Davidsen, Frank Aigbogun, and Labi Williams, among others. Over fine canapés and crisp white tablecloths, these leaders unpacked how catalytic capital, sound policy, and local innovation can reshape how Africa funds its future.
This wasn’t just another high-level cocktail hour. It was a signal: Lagos, and indeed Nigeria, is ready to do more than host investment capital—it’s ready to guide how it’s deployed for genuine, measurable change.
The Lagos Reception: An Inside Look
The Lagos stop on the Africa Impact Summit Tour wasn’t designed as a showpiece. It was intentional, curated to set the tone for more robust engagements across the region.
Held at the Capital Club Lagos—a members-only space that naturally filters noise for meaningful conversation—the reception brought together financiers, policymakers, development practitioners, and media stakeholders. Attendees didn’t come to listen passively; they came to challenge ideas, forge new alliances, and test assumptions about what “impact” should look like when grounded in Nigeria’s day-to-day realities.
Etemore Glover, CEO of the Impact Investors Foundation, opened with clear intent: to transform the gathering from polite chatter to actionable partnerships. She emphasized forging connections and building trust—especially in a landscape where “impact investing” must break through skepticism rooted in years of unfulfilled development promises.
Throughout the evening, the atmosphere stayed relaxed yet purposeful. While some guests exchanged cards, others leaned in for deeper side discussions about real barriers: policy bottlenecks, currency volatility, and the need for data-backed metrics that move beyond feel-good slogans.
In essence, the Lagos reception was the handshake before the deal, the conversation before the contract. And in a region where face-to-face trust remains king, that makes all the difference.
Organisers & Partners
Behind this focused gathering stood a coalition committed to driving Africa’s impact economy beyond annual conferences and into the real economy.
Impact Investors Foundation (Nigeria), the host in Lagos, is the country’s lead champion for building a vibrant impact investment ecosystem—bridging local entrepreneurs with global investors.
Impact Investing Ghana, the national advisory board coordinating the larger Africa Impact Summit, is playing host for the Accra flagship. Together, both bodies are part of the Africa Impact Investing Group (AIIG)—a powerful alliance of country-level boards tasked with ensuring local solutions are at the center of the global impact finance movement.
The Global Steering Group for Impact Investment (GSG) provides the continental and global umbrella. Their backing brings international credibility and access to a network of investors ready to deploy capital at scale.
Key funding partners include the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) through initiatives like RISA (Research and Innovation Systems for Africa), the Catalytic Capital Consortium, and collaborative bodies like Deal Source Africa and IIF West Africa.
This multi-tiered support shows a clear message: the Summit Tour isn’t an isolated event—it’s embedded in a long-term architecture designed to connect local markets with cross-border capital, all while ensuring accountability.
High-Level Guests and Speakers
An event’s substance often depends on who shows up—and in Lagos, the guest list carried real weight.
Etemore Glover, as the evening’s host, shaped the gathering’s energy by rooting it in practical goals: get stakeholders talking, then move from talk to testable action. Her remarks weren’t lofty; they addressed hard truths about why previous investment models failed to stick in Africa’s informal, high-risk environment.
Ibukun Awosika, respected businesswoman and former Chair of First Bank Nigeria, played a key role in a fireside-style exchange with Elizabeth Boggs Davidsen, Managing Director at the Global Steering Group for Impact Investment. Awosika didn’t mince words about the need to bridge local knowledge with global capital flows, ensuring African solutions aren’t overshadowed by imported blueprints.
Elizabeth Boggs Davidsen shared how policymakers and private sector actors must develop Africa-originated policy tools that can crowd in patient capital—money that stays long enough to nurture genuine social and economic returns.
Adding to the local dimension, Frank Aigbogun, Publisher & CEO of BusinessDay Media Limited, emphasized the media’s duty to hold impact investors to account, ensuring that projects are not only well-funded but also transparent in execution.
Labi Williams, representing Deal Source Africa and IIF West Africa, spotlighted the practical side of matchmaking: connecting capital-hungry SMEs with vetted financiers, sidestepping bureaucratic bottlenecks that often kill deals before they close.
This blend of policy architects, capital brokers, thought leaders, and local storytellers created a balanced forum—where ideas were stress-tested against the messy, unpredictable terrain of doing business in Nigeria.
Key Themes from the Lagos Reception
Several clear themes emerged from the reception—signposts for what the broader Africa Impact Summit in Accra will likely tackle head-on.
Unlocking Catalytic Capital
There was consensus that Africa’s development needs won’t be met by commercial finance alone. Catalytic capital—investment that accepts higher risks and longer timelines—is essential to bridge the gap, especially for small businesses and social enterprises that can’t meet conventional collateral requirements.
Participants argued that catalytic funds should not be treated as charity but as smart, blended finance that can de-risk opportunities and attract mainstream investors once ventures mature.
Local Ownership and Policy Innovation
Another repeated call was for homegrown policy frameworks that don’t simply copy Western models. Africa’s informal markets, cultural nuances, and regulatory gaps mean policies must adapt to local contexts. Attendees pressed for policy incentives that reward long-term capital rather than speculative short-term bets.
Bridging the Trust Deficit
Underpinning everything was a frank recognition that trust remains a core barrier. Many local communities view investors—whether foreign or domestic—with suspicion, stemming from decades of extractive deals that left host communities worse off. Impact investing must be demonstrably transparent, with clear social metrics and community accountability baked in from day one.
Speakers highlighted the need for robust data collection and reporting systems so that impact claims can be verified independently—not just by glossy annual reports.
Why This Matters for Nigeria
Nigeria, with its huge population and entrepreneurial energy, remains Africa’s biggest magnet for investment capital. Yet local startups and social enterprises still struggle to scale because capital is either too costly or too risk-averse.
The Lagos reception served as a reminder that if impact investing is to move from boardroom buzzword to real community development tool, Nigeria must play a leadership role. Not just in absorbing capital—but in shaping the rules, the measurement frameworks, and the governance structures that keep investors accountable.
Stakeholders agreed that media, civil society, regulators, and entrepreneurs must work hand-in-hand to ensure impact investing does not become a mere rebranding of traditional venture capital—focused solely on financial exit without leaving communities stronger.
What’s Next: Accra and Beyond
The Africa Impact Summit Tour now shifts to Accra, Ghana, where larger plenary sessions, investor pitch showcases, and policy dialogues will take place. The Ghana summit aims to convene over 400 leaders from government, private capital, development finance, and local entrepreneurs to hammer out concrete deals and sign collaborative charters.
For Nigerian delegates, the Lagos reception was the springboard: ideas seeded in this room will feed into taskforce recommendations, joint investment platforms, and region-wide impact reporting standards.
The broader goal? By 2030, Africa should not be chasing impact investment dollars on donor terms. Instead, the continent should set its own priorities and channel local and international finance toward solutions that reflect the realities of its people.
Final Word
In a landscape littered with abandoned projects and unmet promises, gatherings like the Africa Impact Summit Tour Lagos reception offer cautious optimism. By keeping the conversation candid and the goals specific, impact investing in Africa has a chance to fulfil its promise: not as charity, not as PR, but as patient capital powering the continent’s next growth story—one community at a time.
