About — Frontier Capital Advisors

Who we are

The control stack between borrowers and institutional capital.

Frontier Capital Advisors, LLC is a Delaware-registered advisory and programme management firm headquartered in New York with on-ground presence in Lagos, Nigeria. We act as the control stack between borrowers and a network of regulated international institutional capital providers.

Our mandate is to originate, structure, and arrange financing for sovereign, sub-sovereign, and corporate borrowers across Africa. We work alongside Big-4 advisory firms, internationally recognised legal counsel, and rated credit agencies to ensure every transaction meets institutional standards.

Frontier is not a lender, a bank, or a fund. We do not take deposits, custody client funds, or hold assets on our balance sheet. Capital is deployed directly from regulated institutional sources to the borrower. Frontier does not intermediate, commingle, or sit in the flow of funds at any stage.

Capital network

Institutional depth across 8 African markets.

Frontier arranges financing through an institutional capital network comprising regulated investors, development finance institutions, and private credit funds domiciled in North America and Europe. All capital providers are subject to their home-jurisdiction regulatory oversight. Before any borrower commits, the specific investors are disclosed under a tripartite NDA, and the borrower is able to perform its own full KYC/AML, sanctions, and source-of-funds checks directly on those institutions.

This capital network has deployed over USD 2.3 billion across 11+ transactions in 8 African markets, including Côte d'Ivoire, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe. Transactions span energy, agriculture, real estate, and infrastructure, with individual deal sizes from USD 15 million to USD 1.2 billion. The network operates through 40+ international banks and financial institutions based in Europe, North America, and the UAE. Full composition and credentials are disclosed under NDA during the engagement phase.

$2.3B+

Deployed across our capital network

11+

Transactions closed

8

African markets

40+

Institutional partners

Leadership

Built by operators, not brokers.

Akan E. Nelson

Founder & Managing Partner

Akan's operating background spans billion-dollar upstream transactions at ExxonMobil, P&L oversight across a $600 million cost base at General Electric, and financial modelling at Procter & Gamble. He has led multi-party cross-border due diligence across multiple jurisdictions and designed the SPV-based programme architecture that underpins Frontier's control stack.

Before Frontier Capital Advisors, he founded Evolve Credit, a lending infrastructure platform that originated and serviced over 10,000 transactions across three African markets, building the credit operations, risk frameworks, and multi-country regulatory scaffolding from scratch. He has raised institutional venture capital and managed investor reporting across multiple funding rounds.

MBA, Columbia Business School

Advisory network

Decades of leadership across Africa's financial institutions.

Frontier operates through a network of senior advisors and institutional partners with collective experience spanning Citibank, Standard Chartered, Stanbic Bank, Ecobank, and specialist risk, credit, and capital markets backgrounds. Our advisors bring decades of executive leadership across corporate banking, trade and commodities, retail banking, credit policy, portfolio analytics, and distribution buildouts across Africa.

Advisory network composition and individual credentials are disclosed under NDA during the engagement phase.

Compliance & integrity

Zero tolerance. Full transparency.

Frontier operates a zero-tolerance policy on bribery, corruption, and facilitation payments, consistent with the UK Bribery Act 2010, the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and applicable local legislation. All counterparties are screened against OFAC, EU, and UN sanctions lists and AML/CFT requirements prior to engagement.

Frontier does not pay or accept commissions, kickbacks, or inducements of any kind. All fees are disclosed in writing. All third-party costs are paid directly to named service providers. No personnel or affiliates receive undisclosed compensation.

We welcome review by the counterparty's legal counsel, audit office, or oversight body at any stage.

Ready to move forward?

Send your project teaser, development brief, or term of reference and we will revert within five business days.

funding@frontiercf.com

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