Nigeria: Adesuwa Okunbo Rhodes, founder of an investment fund for women

Adesuwa Okunbo Rhodes is the founder of Aruwa Capital management, a private equity fund that aims to invest in companies whose services improve the daily lives of women or that are founded and run by women. The Nigerian woman was crowned as the 2019 ‘Agent of Impact’ and was recognised as one of the 35 women who are moving the continent forward because of her commitment to gender equality.

Adesuwa Okunbo Rhodes is one of the few African women to create an investment fund for African women entrepreneurs. Born in Nigeria, she moved to England at the age of 11 where she pursued her primary and secondary education. She became interested in finance at an early age. Immediately after secondary school, she joined the University of Bristol where she studied economics.

In her first year at university, she did an internship at the Global investment bank Lehman Brothers. When she was barely 18, she discovered the world of finance and investment. A year later, she joined J.P. Morgan, another investment bank, for a second internship. She was hired there after graduation.

Within the company, she worked in the acquisition finance teams. She was also an investment analyst at TLG Capital where she was involved in several private equity deals in English-speaking Africa, including Uganda. There, she personally invested in a company manufacturing generic pharmaceuticals such as antiretrovirals, to make an impact on people’s lives.

In 2014, she became co-founding partner of Syntaxis Capital Africa, a company that provides growth capital for Small and Medium Enterprises in Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa and part of the international institution Syntaxis Capital Limited. She spent five years as Managing Partner and worked on over $200 million of transactions across sub-Saharan Africa.

Financing African women entrepreneurs

In 2019, she decided to set up her own company, Aruwa Capital management, which according to her, is an extension of Syntaxis Capital Africa. Her decision was motivated by her ambition to enable Africans to take control of their destiny. By creating an investment fund, her aim was to support African women entrepreneurs, because Africa has the highest rate of female entrepreneurship, but only 2% have access to finance.

Through her fund, she aims to increase the number of successful African women in business by giving them easier access to finance and strategic roles. “When women have access to capital, they have an impact on the economy and society because of the important role they play, especially in Africa,”she told The Guardian Nigeria.

Aruwa Capital Management operates in Nigeria and Ghana. She invests in growth-stage businesses that provide essential goods and services to women or are founded by women, or companies where women have a key role in the workforce and the value chain. Her ambition is to change the image of investment and entrepreneurship in Africa.

To date, Aruwa Capital Investment has financed several companies including Wemy Industries Limited, Lifestores Pharmacy in well-being sector, Pngme in financial technology, Agroeknor international specialising in the export of consumer and wellness goods…

Because of her commitment to finance and gender, Adesuwa Okunbo Rhodes was crowned in 2019 as an ‘Agent of Impact’ and was recognised as one of the 35 Women Moving Africa Forward.