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.
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