Our people
Ada Osakwe
Board Member
Ada Osakwe is a Nigeria-based entrepreneur and investor with experience across infrastructure, consumer retail, food, and agriculture. For over 20 years, she has developed a unique blend of public and private sector experiences, starting in investment banking, development finance, and private equity before moving on to public service.
Ada is a strong advocate for small business finance support, youth and women empowerment in business, and climate justice. She focuses her efforts on the food and agriculture sector, where over 50 million smallholder farmers are climate-vulnerable and which holds the most potential for job creation for young people in Africa.
Osakwe is the Forbes Africa Business Woman of the Year 2021. She is a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum and an Archbishop Desmond Tutu Leadership Fellow. Consecutively, from 2016 to 2021, Choiseul/Forbes Africa listed her as one of the Top 100 Africans contributing to economic impact on the Continent. She also received the Entrepreneur of the Year and Achiever in Agriculture Awards in 2015 and was on the Forbes 20 Youngest Power Women in Africa list in 2014.
She has an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, an MSc in Economics and Finance from the University of Warwick, U.K., and a BSc in Economics (First Class Honours) from the University of Hull, U.K.
