4Stone Capital (Formerly known as BlackStone Capital Limited) stands as a beacon of resilience, innovation, and empowerment in Nigeria’s financial sector. Led by the visionary Dr. Elizabeth Kings-Wali, known as Lizzie the Lioness for her trailblazing leadership, the company started its journey during one of the most challenging global moments, the onset of the pandemic. It quickly positioned itself as a trusted financial partner, providing much-needed support to small businesses and households when they needed it most.
With Dr. Kings-Wali‘s dynamic leadership and two decades of experience in retail, SME, commercial, and public-sector banking, the company grew into a customer-centric financial powerhouse. Guided by values such as empathy, trust, transparency, and innovation, it became a go-to partner for small and mid-sized businesses in key industries like manufacturing, agriculture, trade, and real estate.
Over the years, the firm built a solid reputation for growing investment portfolios, offering top-tier financial advisory services, and unlocking opportunities for its clients.
Celebrating five transformative years of success, the Board of BlackStone Capital recognized the need to expand its vision and embrace new opportunities. This inspired a bold step forward: a rebrand to 4Stone Capital Limited, symbolizing an elevated vision while preserving the company’s rich heritage. The new identity not only reflects a deeper commitment to its stakeholders but also charts a path for long-term growth, leveraging increased capitalization and diversification into insurance brokerage.
The rebranding reflects 4Stone Capital‘s ambitious strategy to create greater value for its clients and stakeholders. By venturing into critical industries such as agriculture, mining, and real estate, the company is poised to drive sustainable growth, create jobs, and address pressing issues like food security and housing. Under this new identity, 4Stone Capital retains its strong team, unwavering customer-first ethos, and proven asset quality metrics, ensuring it continues to deliver exceptional service.
Dr. Lizzie Kings-Wali explained the heart behind this evolution: “We see immense opportunities in the Nigerian market and are positioning ourselves to explore untapped potentials, create blue oceans, and provide meaningful impact. Supporting SMEs and households through their financial life cycle has always been our mission, and with our new brand, we aim to meet our clients’ needs across the entire spectrum while growing together through our values of mutual prosperity.”
For Dr. Kings-Wali, the rebrand isn’t just about a name change—it’s about continuing the journey of innovation, impact, and leadership. 4Stone Capital Limited stands ready to transform challenges into opportunities, providing financial solutions with purpose and heart while making a significant difference in Nigeria’s critical sectors.
This evolution is a testament to the company’s enduring commitment to excellence, innovation, and the shared prosperity of its community. With 4Stone Capital Limited, the future is set for impactful growth—driven by a clear vision, steadfast leadership, and an unwavering focus on empowering businesses and households alike.
Kindly share your journey in the financial sector, up to your role as the CEO of 4Stone Capital Limited.
It’s been an exciting career, laced with incredible learning experiences, challenges, and of course opportunities and growth. I started out as a rookie banker, as we sometimes would say, and grew organically to lead teams across retail, commercial, institutional, and corporate banking business units. I must say I was very lucky to have worked with some of the best of the best within the Nigerian financial market, and they afforded me a great deal of opportunity to learn on the job as well as through their purposeful mentorship. Interestingly, it goes both ways, even as an executive, I continued to learn from my seniors as well as those I supervise, as I believe there is no end to learning and knowledge exchange engenders continuous improvement. I believe today’s best can always be better tomorrow, so I am always eager to learn and also transfer knowledge and skills to others. Beyond the positive attitude towards learning, I would say, one of the driving forces behind my career is my innate drive for excellence. My colleagues would always say I am a goal-getter. I have a self-motivating drive towards exceeding expectations, so at each stage of my career, I always stood out, bucking performance benchmarks. It’s a constant phenomenon that I think all my previous employers admired and I am very grateful that I was given the wings to fly. Each time I break the performance ceiling, I was given higher responsibility, so I was constantly challenged to do more. Interestingly, I am a team player, who believes in shared success, so I have always had the support of my colleagues, both superiors and subordinates.
After about two decades of what I consider to be a fast-paced and successful banking career in some of the largest banks in the country, I was convinced I could create more value than I was, and it’s like Maslow’s hierarchy of need. I already had some degree of career fulfillment but I wanted more than just career growth. I want to better serve a segment of the market I considered either underserved or neglected. The SME and retail segments of the market in Nigeria are like rough diamonds, seeking to be polished to unravel the value. I knew it was an audacious vision but I was equally convinced that it’s worthwhile and potentially fulfilling, with commensurate reward on a risk-adjusted basis. So, I resigned my appointment to the surprise of friends and families. I was clear in my mind on what I wanted to do, but I needed to clear my head as to how to get it done. So, I embarked on what I can call a gardening leave to cool-off and figure out the right execution strategy for my daunting vision. That’s how I founded Blackstone Capital Limited to the Glory of God. We started pretty small and perhaps that was a good lesson because the global pandemic, COVID-19, struck just a few months after we launched our operation. Interestingly, whilst supposedly established peers were winding down and rightsizing their operations, we stood tall and forged ahead, with confidence because our team was lean and agile. If I fast forward the journey, we have grown geometrically to a level that amazes and perhaps scares competition. Albeit for us, the party is just about to start, because today, we are transiting to 4Stone Capital Limited to fully reflect our renewed vision and enhanced capabilities, as we branch out to become a financial services powerhouse, offering end-to-end services to the fast-growing segment of the market.
Your company recently rebranded from Blackstone to 4Stone. Kindly share the motive behind the change and how it aligns with the company’s vision.
Yes, we transitioned to 4Stone Capital Limited to reflect our renewed vision, with new cornerstones to support the actualization of our vision. Our success over the past five years reinforces our confidence about the compelling opportunities in the Nigerian market and our capabilities to execute on the right strategies to effectively explore and create sustainable value. So, the Board reassessed our vision and brand, and came to the logical conclusion that it is essential for us to rebrand after the successful execution of our premier strategy playbook. As we initiate the execution of our new medium term strategy plan, we find it impelling to rebrand the corporate identity and culture. Notably, we are diversifying into new growth sectors, in a coordinated approach that ensures synergy. As an example, we recently secured the license and approval of the Nigerian Insurance Commission to run an insurance brokerage subsidiary.
I am pleased to say that within our stint in the industry, we have been recognized as one of the most innovative contenders. As evidence to our strong value creation for clients, we have been appointed as insurance broker to some of the largest and most complex transactions in the country. We would positively disrupt the industry, especially as we see great opportunities to improve the use of insurance in optimizing business and institutional growth strategies. Our local knowledge, global exposure and customer-centric culture would always give us an edge over the competition. We see latent and emerging opportunities in agriculture, mining, housing, and manufacturing, as new reforms of the government begin to take shape. We would be collaborating with our partners and willing investors to strategically approach these growth poles of the Nigerian economy. To us, not only does this new business strategy fulfill our diversification plan, it supports our renewed aspiration and ability to generate superior and sustainable returns for our stakeholders.
What key challenges do financial services providers in Nigeria face and how does 4Stone Capital navigate them?
Perhaps the scariest challenge is “trust” and I think I must say the challenge is both ways. There is a lack of trust between institutions and clients. Some institutions are just not transparent, whether it is about their pricing or their services. On the other end of the spectrum, you can have customers who betray the trust that institutions bestow on them. It can be falsification of documents or diversion of funds for personal and other use. Trust increases the cost of doing business and impacts the pricing of services, hence it is a cost to both the service provider and the clients. Yes, unforeseen circumstances can impair the ability of a customer to fulfill his/her obligation, but oftentimes, defaults are borne out of trust issues. Besides trust, there is the general challenge of the high cost of doing business and limited access to capital that constrains most financial service providers, especially firms focusing on the underserved segment of the market. Sometimes, it’s due to the misconception that this is the most-risky segment of the market, so investors are wary of investing in any business that focuses on this segment of the market. Interestingly, whilst the risk of each customer is relatively high, the risk of the portfolio is surely lower than often perceived and we have over the past five years demonstrated that with our asset quality.
Again, talent is increasingly becoming scarce in the financial services sector. It’s a paradox that we have a high youthful unemployment rate, but I must say that we have a notable skill gap, and sometimes the expectations of new hires do not align with the realities of the business environment. The “japa” syndrome has eroded a lot of experienced professionals and new hires sometimes seek to benchmark their salary expectation with their friends abroad, neglecting the fact that the Nigerian business environment cannot support the wage rate in developed countries like United Kingdom, United States, Canada or anywhere in Europe, just as our cost profiles are different. As much as we are conscious of their inflationary environment and ensure that our total compensation is competitive, getting talent is challenging, as we compete with the big banks for human resources, especially as I reckon we have very high recruitment and overall human capital management standards, so getting the right talent is a really challenging, just as it can be expensive retaining them as well. One way we continue to manage this is to invest in trainings, both formal and informal, on-the-job trainings. Of course, we are doing a good job in retention, through our total compensation package, work culture, and conducive work environment.
How is 4Stone leveraging technology and digital transformation to enhance financial services?
First, I like to note that technology for us is an enabler that enhances the efficiency and effectiveness of our service, albeit we are always clear that it does not replace our personalized human and cultural touch, which I believe is one of the unique aspects of our service in the market. That being said, we leverage technology from two perspectives. First, it’s about how we use technology to ease customer engagements and reach, both in terms of democratizing financial services through our digital distribution channels, such as ClickSave (a web and App platform) that supports seamless access to financial services for Nigerians of all ages and income class. On the flip side, we leverage technology for operational efficiency. We have both proprietary off the shelf applications that feed into our enterprise resource planning software, thereby ensuring quick turnaround in our operations and effective data management and security. I would say technology is one of the bedrocks of our operational agility and efficiency.
With the evolving financial landscape in the country, what trends do you see shaping the sector in the next five years?
There are a few trends shaping the global financial market and I do think Nigeria is not an exception. Whilst our domestic political environment and economic reform of the current administration would have notable influence on the growth and structure of the financial market, going forward, I do expect global issues such as foreign trade policies (especially Trump’s policies and retaliatory measures from other countries), cybersecurity concerns, regulations, new technologies as well as the growth of private markets and digital assets to dominate financial market trends in the near to medium term. Clearly globalization is being challenged and as countries look inwards, trade and capital flows would increasingly be restricted.
This means that both foreign portfolio flows and foreign direct investment may be weak over the next few years. This reinforces the need for countries like Nigeria to develop policies to encourage local capital formation and entrepreneurship to fill the vacuum that may be created by weakened FDIs. More than ever, it has become exigent to incentivize local entrepreneurship and stem capital flight. The inflationary pressures are easing, giving way to a relatively relaxed monetary policy environment in both developed and developing countries. Albeit there are concerns that trade restrictions in the form of tariffs and other measures being pursued by President Trump and retaliatory measures from countries like China, Canada, and Mexico may trigger new inflationary pressures and disrupt capital flows.
What would you advise start-ups and SMEs looking for financial support and investment guidance?
I think the first thing is for the founder of the start-up to be realistic and know that financial capital is just one of several things that a business requires to succeed. So, be sure you have a strong value proposition before approaching investors. Sometimes, people over-rate the value of their ideas and worse still lack the capacity to execute even the ideas. Sometimes, the idea can be great but the owner of the idea just do not have the capacity to execute, and in such circumstance, it may be that you require a partner that can complement your skills.
Again, it’s not just about financial capital, social capital is as important, so when looking for investors, seek out the right investors for your business. Seek out investors who can add value beyond just the financial capital. Mentorship sometimes can be more valuable than financial capital and I often recommend that every start-up entrepreneur should have at least one mentor, who is not only experienced in leading a business to success but also understands your business and ready to provide guidance. Back to the issue of overrating the business is the sometimes-unrealistic valuation of start-up companies and the seeming unwillingness to institute relevant corporate governance. Interestingly, having a sound corporate governance is not necessarily a favour to investors, rather it is like oxygen for the business.
So, try to put relevant structures in place. If you need to hire yourself to earn a living, please do so and know the difference between your personal finance and that of the business, especially when it no longer belongs to you alone. Once you raise capital, no matter how little it may seem, the business is no longer yours alone and there should be proper accountability. Having proper corporate governance may look like an expensive thing for a company, but it’s the right and most efficient way to ensure the sustainability of your business, and in fact, it is very costly not to have it.
What is your vision for 4Stone Capital and what new initiatives should we expect?
We want to be the go-to financial services hub nurturing SMEs into becoming great companies as the true engine of growth for Nigeria’s economic growth. We seek to be the conduit for local and foreign investors exploring opportunities in the fast-growing sectors, creating value for all stakeholders and serving as a catalyst for national prosperity. It is our vision to provide full scale wrap-around financial services for SMEs and all the stakeholders in the ecosystem, providing the platform for investors and business owners to fulfill their objectives.
With our renewed vision, we would demystify the risks in the real sector of the Nigerian economy, working with credible investors and business owners to create a new vista of opportunities across the value chain in the agriculture, mining, manufacturing and real estate sectors.
