Deji Adebusoye

Empowering African SMEs for Growth and Value Creation

About Me

I am the author of Scaling for Success: Empowering African SMEs. I am a Partner at Sahel Capital, a food and agriculture-focused private investment firm in Sub-Saharan Africa. Sahel Capital manages the Fund for Agriculture Financing in Nigeria (FAFIN) and the Social Enterprise Fund for Agriculture in Africa (SEFAA).

I co-lead SEFAA, an impact-first fund investing in agribusinesses that provide direct or indirect benefits to smallholder farmers across 13 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. I also lead investments and portfolio management for SEFAA and manage FAFIN portfolios, two of which were recently exited. I am a director on the board of one of the portfolio companies and serve in advisory roles for several startups and SMEs.

Before that, I spent three years in various senior roles with Syngenta Crop Protection AG. As the head of operations, I played a significant role in the formal opening of Syngenta Nigeria. I later became the Global Portfolio Operations Manager for one of the company’s business units in Switzerland. I started my career by building systems and processes for Procter Gamble across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

I am an African-Asia Impact Investing (AAII) Fellow and a Centre for African Leaders in Agriculture (CALA) Fellow.
I studied chemical engineering at the Obafemi Awolowo University, where I graduated with a first (1st) class degree and I have an MBA from INSEAD Business School.

African businesses need a kick in the rear end. Why do most companies struggle to grow? Why do they have a very short life span? Why are they not investible? Believe it or not, there is a lot of money looking for worthy investments, but unfortunately, they are short of supply.

My daily interaction with these businesses suggests that it should not be so. They require only a few tweaks to prepare them for growth and create significant economic profits for the major stakeholders, especially the founders.

My articles cut across governance, growth mindsets, cash flow management, business sustainability, etc. My goal is to get more African SMEs across the longevity threshold prevalent on the continent.

You can also find me on Twitter.

Thanks.

Reviews / Recommendations

I reported directly to Deji. At the time Deji controlled all IT related projects in Sub Sahara Africa. He took over the role at a stressful time in the industry and ensured that P&Gs distributors had adequate IT systems to handle the unpredicatable nature of doing business in Africa. Under Deji's leadership many milestones and industry firsts were achieved, from the fastest ERP implementations down to real time masterdata synchronisations. Hence I gladly recommend Deji
Oren Moodley
Head of IT & OT at Bridgestone Southern Africa | ex-P&G | ex-FNB
As a First Class Honors student in Chemical Engineering, ‘Deji’s numerate and technical skills have been tested and not found wanting. His intellectual ability is only surpassed by his emotional intelligence. ‘Deji has the gift of empathy. He can feel people in a way that makes it easy for them to be led by him. He is a certified Project Manager (PMP) meaning his ability to resolve time, cost and scope conflicts is above par. ‘Deji is an invaluable asset to any team and I recommend him without reservations.
Michael Taiwo, Ph.D.
Hydrogen | Social Entrepreneur | MT Scholarship
Adedeji is a top-notch professional of a rare bread. As team members in the Distributor Operations Team (DOT), he was very pivotal in leading several projects, which changed the way P&G Distributors in West Africa do business today. He led the design, presentation, buy-in, deployment, implementation and implant of Sage Pastel across all Distributors in Nigeria. He is a terrific business minded and result driven person. I confidently recommend him to anyone/organisation who requires his services
Oluyemi Oloyede
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer at UAC Foods
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