Experts Share NextGen Insights at Africa Roundtable Events

This week, we successfully hosted two roundtable events in Kenya in partnership with ALN Kenya.

The roundtable events in Mombasa and Nairobi focussed on: ‘Family Enterprises: NextGen Aspirations and Preparedness’, which attracted a first-class range of stakeholders, advisers and representatives from local and international family enterprises.

Led by Jersey Finance’s Faizal Bhana, Director – Middle East, Africa and India, and Mona Doshi, Partner at ALN Kenya, guests heard from various speakers with expertise in supporting East African family enterprises and private clients.

Both events generated thought-provoking discussions on the current issues and topics for family enterprises in the region and beyond, with the following key takeaways being noteworthy:

• NextGen integration into the business needs to be structured, timed and with agreement from all;
• governance and succession does not need to be complex but must be flexible and adaptable to incorporate future changes and developments;
• having adequate governance and succession plans provides stability;
• there is a distinction between family governance and succession; and the business governance and succession with some overlap;
• to efficiently integrate NextGen, family enterprises can use trusts, foundations or corporate structures;
• the mindset of the family when it comes to the family wealth should be more as ‘stewards for future generations’ and not just ‘owners’ of it;
• family enterprises can achieve success and longevity through robust succession and governance. The opposite is also true i.e. the family legacy and, ultimately the family wealth may be lost without governance and succession plans in place;
• and have adequately experienced expert advisors, both locally in Kenya and internationally, to help with this critical planning.

Thank you to all our expert speakers for sharing their insights and our guests for ensuring these events were engaging and enjoyable.