A new Africa-focused business intelligence consultancy Songhai Advisory has set up to provide solutions for country risk, due diligence and executive search.

The UK-registered firm offers a bespoke advisory service to a wide-ranging client base of FTSE 100 companies and niche players, including the Business Council for Africa and Vodafone Ghana.

Songhai was founded by two former IHS Global Insight analysts; Nana Adu Ampofo and Kissy Agyeman-Togobo.

Ampofo is a specialist in investment climate analysis with particular knowledge of the political economy in the Gulf of Ghana.

Agyeman-Togobo served as a senior country analyst at IHS, as well as holding analyst roles at the UK’s Exclusive Analysis and The Risk Advisory Group.

GTR speaks with Agyeman-Togobo about the reasons behind the new firm: “We had a vision of becoming a premier Africa-focussed consultancy, which would be innovative and truly embedded in the continent while also bridging the disconnect between the investor and the host nation.”

“We felt that the time was now because investing in Africa has never been so exciting and alluring,” she continues.

The global credit crisis provided the niche for the firm to fill, as Agyeman-Togobo adds: “Because of the global financial crisis, there’s a great deal of risk aversion, so we wanted to place ourselves snugly within that gap, to be the interface, as it were.”

Furthermore, the company’s mandate is to work closely with local developmental organisations in Africa.

“Crucially, a key part of our work is about value creation, putting something back, and such an approach will only sharpen our analysis of the investment climate,” she adds.