United Capital Group, the Nigerian investment bank controlled by billionaire Tony Elumelu’s Heirs Holdings, has secured Ethiopia’s first investment banking licence ever issued to a foreign institution committing over $1.5 million to launch local operations in a country that kept its financial sector sealed to outside participation for more than half a century, while simultaneously winning regulatory approval in Rwanda for trust services, investment banking and portfolio management.
The Ethiopian Capital Market Authority formally issued the licence on June 5, approving United Capital to operate through a newly incorporated local subsidiary, United Capital Financial Services PLC, with five board members and four authorised representatives cleared to conduct investment banking activities.
The approval brings the total number of licensed capital market participants in Ethiopia to 18, including seven investment banks, a figure that would have been unthinkable three years ago in a country that lacked a functioning stock exchange until the Ethiopian Securities Exchange launched trading in January 2025.
The timing is deliberate. Ethiopia, Africa’s second most populous country with over 120 million people, is in the middle of a sweeping financial liberalisation under Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. In 2025, Ethiopia opened its banking sector to foreign investors for the first time in over 50 years, enacted a new Banking Business Proclamation permitting foreign banks to establish subsidiaries and acquire stakes in domestic institutions, and overhauled its foreign exchange regime from a centrally managed system to a market-based framework.
United Capital’s investment banking licence sits squarely within that reform trajectory and represents the sharpest signal that international capital markets players are ready to move in.
United Capital did not attempt to understate what the moment means.
“Africa’s future will be built by African capital, mobilised through African institutions, for African prosperity,” the group said in announcing the dual expansion. “From Lagos to Kigali. From Abidjan to Addis Ababa. Our vision remains undaunted: Empowering Africa’s transformation through innovative financial and investment solutions.”
The Rwanda approval, granted by the Capital Market Authority of Rwanda, covers trust services, investment banking and portfolio management, rounding out a dual East Africa entry that extends United Capital’s operational footprint to 12 African countries across West, East, and Central Africa.
Rwanda, consistently ranked among Africa’s most business-friendly and transparent investment environments, gives United Capital a second East African anchor alongside Ethiopia’s sheer market scale.
The expansion lands on the back of strong financials.
United Capital reported revenue of $43.1 million for the full year ended December 2025 up 35 percent year-on-year with profit before tax rising 37 percent to $30.3 million.
The group manages more than 1.1 trillion naira in assets across its subsidiaries, providing the financial muscle to back an aggressive continental growth strategy with substance rather than ambition alone.
For Ethiopia, the significance of United Capital’s entry extends beyond one licence. It is validation by a well-capitalised, publicly listed African institution with a decade of Pan-African operating experience that the country’s capital markets reform programme has reached the credibility threshold required to attract serious institutional players. The question now is how many follow.
