Funke Okubadejo, Managing Director: West Africa, Actis

08 Nov Funke Okubadejo, Managing Director: West Africa, Actis

I studied STEM at high school and then did an engineering degree, although I soon realised I was more interested in the financial side of businesses. I thus transitioned by training as a Chartered Accountant with Arthur Andersen in Nigeria while working on assurance and business advisory engagements including for private equity transactions. After six years I joined Africa Capital Alliance, a pioneer private equity firm in Nigeria, where I was involved in a fund focusing on SMEs from concept through to the complete investment cycle, and later helped in setting up a real estate fund. After that, I completed a Masters in Finance at London Business School and then joined Actis in 2007 because of the firm’s focus on emerging markets and its South-South knowledge transfer which I found appealing. Initially, I spent two years focused on private equity, before moving to the real estate team.