What:
Emerging Capital Partners
Where:
Lagos, Nigeria
What did you do this summer?
I worked in Lagos, Nigeria for an Africa-focused private equity group called Emerging Capital Partners (ECP). ECP has over $1 billion of funds to invest exclusively in Africa and has invested in businesses all over the continent for over a decade.
I was a summer associate working with a small team in Lagos to evaluate investment opportunities in African businesses across West Africa.
What was your background prior to HBS?
Prior to HBS, I did investment banking in North Carolina and New York City for Wachovia Securities
Why did you choose to spend your internship in Emerging Capital Partners at Nigeria?
I have an interest in going back home to Nigeria immediately after graduation to work full-time so I viewed this internship as a great chance “to be on the ground” and also get a chance to evaluate a variety of business opportunities without being focused on one industry.
I got a chance to learn about a range of interesting opportunities I would not have been otherwise exposed to:
– Baby Diaper and Women’s Sanitary product manufacturer which provides services to bottom of the pyramid consumers who are severely underserved and have no wide-reaching access to these products
-Chicken Processing / production house which aims to directly tackle food scarcity in West Africa.
– Large cement importer and steel products processor that provides basic outputs needed to tackle Nigeria’s severe infrastructure gap
– Additionally, the internship was a great way to get good home cooking regularly and you can’t beat that!
What advice do you have for RCs looking for summer internships?
First, don’t be afraid to take a risk and try something new for your internship. A lot of your classmates will gravitate towards more mainstream job opportunities for the summer.its okay to be different. This is a great opportunity to test out what you think may be your “ideal job” and see if you would really enjoy a career in that field.
Second, have patience! Don’t freak out if you don’t have an internship completely sorted out after recruiting week. While it may be daunting to see all your friends with summer offers and you don’t have one yet, keep networking and working hard on the job you think you want. It may not come the second you want it but it will eventually!
