Our Team

Mezuo has more than two decades of experience across private equity, investment banking, and corporate finance. He launched Sahel Capital’s debut fund, the Fund for Agriculture Finance in Nigeria (FAFIN), in 2014, and the Social Enterprise Fund for Agriculture in Africa (SEFAA) in 2021. He provides oversight on the deployment of investment capital and the firm’s portfolio.

Mezuo serves on the boards of several of Sahel Capital’s portfolio companies. He is also on the board of the African Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (“AVCA”), Nigeria National Advisory Board for Impact Investing (“NABII”), and is one of the founding members and a director of the Private Equity and Venture Capital Association, Nigeria (“PEVCA”).

Mezuo was one of three partners that set up AFIG’s debut US$72 million generalist fund in 2008, working out of the Dakar office in Senegal. Mezuo started his career with the corporate finance team of the Sabre Group in Dallas in 1995, worked in J.P. Morgan & Co’s Mergers and Acquisitions Group in New York, and then subsequently in a range of finance roles with SecTrust (now Afrinvest), Ocean & Oil Holdings, and MTS First Wireless. Mezuo co-founded AACE Foods (a food processing company) and Sahel Consulting (an agriculture focused management consulting firm) in 2010, and subsequently Sahel Capital in 2013. He remains a non-executive director in both AACE Foods and Sahel Consulting.

Mezuo is an Eisenhower Fellow and an Archbishop Tutu Fellow. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a B.Sc. Industrial Management from Carnegie Mellon University. Mezuo received the 2021 Harvard Business School Alumni Achievement Award, the highest honor given by the school.

Deji has more than a decade of work experience, of which 7 years were in operating roles in the FMCG, agrochemicals, and seed sectors. Since joining Sahel Capital in 2016, he has led investments and provided portfolio oversight across a broad range of crop value chains.

Deji previously worked with Syngenta Crop Protection AG and Proctor & Gamble; and has lived and worked in Nigeria and Switzerland. He sits on the Board of Directors of L&Z Integrated Farms and Coscharis Farms Ltd.

Deji is a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA®) and is also certified as a Project Management Professional (PMP). He holds a B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering (First Class Honours) from Obafemi Awolowo University, and an MBA from INSEAD Business School.

Yemisi is a credit risk professional with over a decade of work experience within the financial industry. She partners with the business development team to create a portfolio of investments with focus on impact and sustainability.

Prior to joining Sahel Capital in 2021, she worked with Sterling Bank for 13 years as a Credit Risk Analyst. She worked on various projects within Agriculture, Oil and Gas, Transport, Manufacturing and other viable sectors.

Yemisi has a B.Sc. Accounting from the University of Lagos. She is also an associate member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers.

Laurent is a Senior Investment Analyst at Sahel Capital with six years of professional experience in cash management, credit risk analysis, and financial rating.
Before joining Sahel Capital in 2024, Laurent worked at Bloomfield Investment Corporation and Cofina CIV, where he focused on the credit risk of financial institutions and companies in various sectors, including energy, trade and agribusiness.
Laurent holds a bachelor’s degree from the Felix Houphouet Boigny Polytechnic Institute in Yamoussoukro and a master’s degree in Corporate Finance from ISAE-Supméca in Paris.

Fikemi is an experienced finance professional with over 5 years of work experience in the financial service industry.

Prior to joining Sahel Capital in 2023, she was a senior financial reporting analyst at a leading asset management firm. She oversaw the fund accounting, finance operations, and financial reporting processes in her previous position.

Fikemi is a Chartered Accountant, a certified financial modeling and valuation analyst, and holds a bachelor’s degree in management and accounting from Obafemi Awolowo University