From Lexology. Story by Raj Kulasingam and Nicholas Plant with Dentons, a multinational law firm.

The Africa private equity industry is still young and this youthfulness comes through in its members and their attitudes.

The attitude that I like the most is that, whilst there is obviously competition between private equity houses, advisers, funders and other professionals, there is still a sense of camaraderie and cooperation with all involved.

I think Runa Alam (DPI) hit the nail on the head when she opened the AVCA conference (African Private Equity and Venture Capital Association) by quoting the African proverb,

“If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

This diverse membership is united by a common purpose: to contribute to Africa and be part of the Africa growth story.

That’s what excites me about working on the continent compared to other regions. And perhaps overlaying all of this is that the Africa private equity industry knows how to have fun.

I met Robbie Brozin (founder of Nandos from South Africa) recently and heard him talk about how he grew Nandos from one small restaurant to the global chicken peri-peri giant of today. An inspiring story. He had some great one-liners about doing business and the one that stuck was,

“My vision was always to have fun and make money and if you are not happy in your job you should just….do something else.”

Read more at Lexology.