Ada Osakwe

Ada Osakwe joined the One Acre Fund board in 2017. She is the Founder and Chief Executive of Agrolay Ventures, an investment firm targeting early-stage agribusiness and food-related companies and projects in Africa. She is also the founder of Nuli Juice, a farm-to-table restaurant chain in Nigeria that works to create markets for smallholder farmers. Ada was the Senior Investment Adviser to Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, Nigeria’s former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development and led investment policy and financing initiatives focused on the private sector. Prior to this, she was a Vice President at Kuramo Capital Management, a private equity firm in New York. She was also a Senior Investment Officer at the African Development Bank Group (AfDB), focused on infrastructure financing. She started her career as an investment banker with BNP Paribas London. Ada received her MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. She holds 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. Ada is a 2016 Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum and an Archbishop Desmond Tutu Leadership Fellow. She serves on the AfDB President’s Advisory Group on the Bank’s ‘Jobs For Africa’s Youth’ initiative. Ada is an independent voting member of the board.