Property firm to spend $250 million in Nigeria, Ghana, Angola, Ivory Coast

According to AllAafrica, this real estate development fund is set to handle the growing demand for real estate in Africa.

The Chief Executive Officer of RMB Westport, Simon Fifield, spoke on the goal of the fund.

"Despite a number of macroeconomic headwinds in certain of the territories in which we operate, strong long-term growth prospects, coupled with favourable demographics, and the pleasing trends of increasing urbanisation and consumer spending have all led to high demand for retail, industrial and commercial property space.

It is a credit to both the capital raising abilities of our joint venture partner, (FirstRand's asset management business), as well as the mature, long-term view adopted by our investor base that we have been able to secure such a substantial amount of capital on the first close."

Last year, $203 million (about N50billion) was also set aside for developing the real estate sector in Nigeria and other West African countries.

According to Michael O’Malley, Director of RMB, this particular fund was raised due to a belief in Africa's real estate industry.

"We believe in the African growth story. Over the past decade‚ African economic output has more than tripled‚ which is one of the many reasons we think that Africa today holds the greatest overall investment potential for all frontier markets globally.”