DOVA CEO Dupe Olusola urges better capital use across Africa

Africa doesn’t just need more capital; it needs to use the capital already circulating in its economies far better, according to Dupe Olusola, Founder and CEO of DOVA Capital.

In the latest instalment of her series The Architecture of African Growth, Olusola argues that while international and development finance will remain important, significant resources are already flowing through African economies in the form of savings, pensions, business earnings and diaspora remittances.

“The question is not simply whether this capital exists,” she said on her official LinkedIn page. “It is whether we have the systems to connect it, organise it and put it to work for the long term.”

Olusola emphasises that true development requires more than the availability of money. It demands patient capital, capital that can remain invested, compound over time and contribute to building lasting productive capacity across the continent.

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She notes that the critical challenge lies in creating the right architecture to channel these existing pools of capital into long-term development priorities. Without stronger systems to mobilise, organise and deploy domestic and diaspora resources, Africa risks continuing to underutilise the financial strength it already possesses.

In her analysis, Olusola poses a central question for policymakers, financial institutions and investors: what would it take for a pension fund in Lagos, a diaspora saver in London and a family business in Nairobi to all regard Africa as the natural home for their long-term capital?

Her intervention adds to the growing continental conversation on how Africa can reduce over-reliance on external financing by strengthening the mechanisms that allow local and diaspora capital to stay, grow and drive sustainable economic transformation.