New Business Committee/ Credit Committee

Kolawole Owodunni is the Executive Director and Chief Investment Officer of the Nigeria Sovereign Investment  Authority – responsible for deploying over US$4.3 billion across the Authority’s core funds: Stabilisation Fund, Future Generations Fund and Nigeria Infrastructure Fund. 

He holds a Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Imperial College, London and an MBA from INSEAD, France.  Kola has extensive experience in the financial services sector spanning Risk Management, Investment Banking, Equity, Fixed Income and Alternative Investments. 

Kola joined the NSIA in 2013 as the Head of Investment Risk Management and was appointed CIO in 2020. In addition to his current role as ED/CIO, he serves on the Board of various NSIA investee companies as a Non-Executive Director. 

Kola’s previous roles include Head of Risk Management at Dunn Loren Merrifield, a boutique Investment Bank headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria. He was also a Risk Manager in Credit Suisse, London. Kola was one of the pioneer team that started the Hedge Fund Development and Management Group at Merrill Lynch (now Bank of America Merrill Lynch) in London.

Chinua Azubike is the pioneer Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of InfraCredit, prior to this, he was the project lead for the establishment of a Nigeria Infrastructure Credit Enhancement Facility, where he assisted GuarantCo and the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority to establish InfraCredit as its first employee. He holds an MSc. in Finance & Financial Law from University of London and studied law at the University of Lagos, Nigeria.

Chinua Azubike is the pioneer Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of InfraCredit, prior to this, he was the project lead for the establishment of a Nigeria Infrastructure Credit Enhancement Facility, where he assisted GuarantCo and the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority to establish InfraCredit as its first employee. He holds an MSc. in Finance & Financial Law from University of London and studied law at the University of Lagos, Nigeria.

Chinua Azubike has garnered over 16 years’ experience in corporate/structured finance and debt capital market roles. Chinua has a strong and practical know-how of local capital markets with a firm interest in market development and has acted as a lead adviser in the establishment of key development finance institutions in Nigeria. He was the Managing Director of a corporate finance advisory firm, based in Lagos, Nigeria and prior to this worked in a top-tier domestic investment banking firm.

Chinua Azubike is currently the chairperson of the Regulation Consolidation Sub-Committee of FMDQ Debt Capital Market Development Project. Chinua is a protagonist of Harvard Business School’s Case Study on “Infrastructure in Nigeria: Unlocking Pension Fund Investments” published in February 2018 and is being taught on HBS’s MBA Program.

Gilles joined InfraCo Africa from Engie. He has 20 years of experience working in the private sector in the manufacturing and energy industries.

His expertise ranges from engineering, operations and project development to strategy, business development and investments. Gilles is passionate about socioeconomic development models that improve living standards while not compromising environmental sustainability.

Gilles holds an MSc in Civil Engineering from the Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium) and an MBA from the George Washington University in Washington D.C.

Ms. Hamda Ambah was the erstwhile Managing Director/CEO of FSDH Merchant Bank from 2017 to 2021, having served effectively as an Executive Director of FSDH Capital Limited from September 2009 to January 2017.

While serving as the Executive Director, she was in charge of the marketing teams including Corporates – Multinational, Middle-tier Corporations, Telecommunications and the Energy Sector as well as the Port Harcourt and Abuja Regional Offices.

Ms Ambah commenced her banking career in 1982 at the International Merchant Bank Plc, Lagos, Nigeria and worked with Reuters Ltd, Nigeria for about five years before joining FSDH in 1993.

She graduated from the University of Lagos in 1980 after which she obtained her postgraduate qualifications from the Imperial College of Science & Technology, London and is a member of the Nigerian Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers.

Dianne is Chair of the PIDG Ltd. Risk Committee. She has over 30 years of diverse executive-level advisory and investment experience across multiple infrastructure sectors and regions in developed and emerging markets, bringing leadership experience from the public sector with U.S. government agencies and the private sector in senior positions at a Wall Street investment bank. She advises governments, international financial institutions and companies on strategy, governance, investment and risk analysis in emerging markets. She is well versed in development finance. Infrastructure finance expert with extensive experience as a lender and financial decision-maker on structuring guarantees, corporate and project finance transactions, and public-private partnerships, having financed transactions representing over $30 billion worldwide. Skilled and dynamic speaker and educator on infrastructure finance worldwide. Dianne holds an MBA in Finance from the NYU Stern School of Business and a BA in Economics and French from Tufts University.