Paul Fokam Launches Africa Diamond Invest to Tap West African Markets
TOGO · MARKETS
Key Facts
—The launch: Cameroonian billionaire Paul Fokam has opened Africa Diamond Invest, a securities firm, in Togo.
—The capital: It starts with 1 billion FCFA (about $1.6 million), a sharp step up from the holding company’s original Togo base.
—The licence: It is registered as a Société de Gestion et d’Intermédiation, a licensed broker-dealer in Togo’s market.
—The base: Fokam is building from Lomé, betting on Togo as a gateway to the UEMOA single market.
—The market: The firm will plug into the regional BRVM exchange, which serves eight West African countries.
—The family: It is run by Fokam’s son, Christian Fogaing Kammogne, a former Afriland banker in Côte d’Ivoire.
Cameroonian billionaire Paul Fokam has launched Africa Diamond Invest, a securities firm capitalised at 1 billion FCFA (about $1.6 million) and based in Togo, to tap West Africa’s fast-growing capital markets. The move is the boldest step yet in his plan to build a regional investment platform from Lomé.
What Africa Diamond Invest is
The new firm is a securities and investment-management house, registered in Togo as a Société de Gestion et d’Intermédiation. That licence lets it trade and manage portfolios on the regional market.
It launches with one billion FCFA in capital, around $1.6 million. That is a tenfold jump on the 100 million FCFA with which Fokam’s holding company first set up in Togo in 2022.
The business is the first operational product to emerge from that Lomé base. It marks the holding’s move from registration to real activity.
A Société de Gestion et d’Intermédiation is the regional market’s version of a licensed broker and asset manager. It can place orders, underwrite share issues and run client money on the exchange.
Why Lomé, and why now
Fokam chose Togo because its government has worked to position the country as a regional financial and logistics hub. Lomé sits inside the UEMOA bloc and hosts members of the regional exchange.
Under President Faure Gnassingbé, Togo has marketed itself as a gateway to francophone West Africa and, increasingly, to anglophone markets further east. An improving business climate has drawn several financial groups in recent years.
The timing tracks a wider opening of West Africa’s capital markets. Retail investors are arriving, regulation is tightening and demand is rising for products beyond the bank deposit.
Togo is small, but its location and policy choices have let it punch above its weight in regional finance. Lomé has marketed its port and its rules to companies serving the wider bloc.
Who Paul Fokam is
Fokam founded what is now Afriland First Bank in Cameroon in 1987, starting as a community savings and investment fund. He has since built one of the most geographically spread African-owned financial groups on the continent.
Afriland First Group operates across Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Benin, Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Liberia, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, among others, with a holding company in Geneva. Its reach runs from West Africa to France and China.
Fokam has long described his mission as building African-owned institutions for people the formal banking system leaves out. That philosophy has guided a steady push into frontier markets.
Fokam is regularly counted among Cameroon’s wealthiest businessmen. Afriland’s spread across more than a dozen countries gives the new Togo venture a ready regional network to lean on.
A family-run regional bet
Africa Diamond Invest is led by Christian Fogaing Kammogne, Fokam’s son. He spent six years as deputy managing director of Afriland First Bank in Côte d’Ivoire before taking the role.
The appointment keeps the venture close to the family while drawing on regional banking experience. It also points to a generational handover inside one of Central Africa’s most prominent business dynasties.
How it fits West Africa’s market story
The regional BRVM exchange, based in Abidjan, lists companies from across the eight-nation UEMOA zone. A securities firm in Lomé gives Fokam a seat at that table.
From there, the new house can connect regional investors with listed companies, manage portfolios and structure products for a growing middle class. The opportunity is the gap between bank savings and capital-market investing.
West African bourses have seen a string of listings and rising activity over the past year. Building brokerage capacity now is a bet that the trend has further to run.
For Fokam, a brokerage is also a feeder for the rest of his group. Banking clients can be pointed toward investment products, and the exchange offers a fresh way to raise capital for African companies.
What to watch
The first measure is whether Africa Diamond Invest wins mandates and brings products to market quickly. A licence is a start, not a business.
The second is whether Fokam uses the Lomé platform to expand further across the region. The group’s history suggests it will not stop at one market.
Frequently asked questions
What is Africa Diamond Invest?
It is a securities and investment-management firm launched in Togo by Cameroonian billionaire Paul Fokam’s Afriland First Holding. It is capitalised at 1 billion FCFA, about $1.6 million.
Why did Paul Fokam base it in Togo?
He chose Lomé because Togo has positioned itself as a regional financial hub inside the UEMOA bloc, with access to the regional BRVM exchange. The government has courted financial groups with an improving business climate.
What will the firm do?
As a licensed broker-dealer, it can trade on the regional market, manage portfolios and structure investment products. It aims to connect West African investors with listed companies.
Who runs Africa Diamond Invest?
It is led by Christian Fogaing Kammogne, Paul Fokam’s son and a former deputy managing director of Afriland First Bank in Côte d’Ivoire.
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