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 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 serves on the credit committee of LAFCo, which provides working capital to SMEs in the agribusiness sector in Africa, backed by KfW and AgDevCo; and is on the investment committee of FAFIN.

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. He was also recognized in 2019 as the alumni Entrepreneur of the Year by the Harvard Business School Alumni Association of Nigeria and Impact Investor of the Year by the Impact Investors Foundation.

Mr. Nwuneli serves on the boards of the AACE Foods, Coscharis Farms, Crest Agro Products, First World Communities, Ladgroup, L&Z Integrated Farms, Sahel Capital, and Sahel Consulting. He previously served on the board of Nagode Industries. He is the Chairman/Co-Founder of AACE Foods; Chair of the Strategy Committee at First World Communities; and Chair of the Finance and Audit Committee at Crest Agro Products. He is on the Nigeria National Advisory Board for Impact Investing, and is one of the founding members and a director of the Private Equity and Venture Capital Association, Nigeria (“PEVCA”).

Mope Ogunsulire has a background in international corporate and project finance (development finance, M&A, syndications) and is an experienced investment professional with two decades experience in direct investing. She has executed agribusiness transactions across the value chain from primary production to food processing, and also in agricultural services.

She has worked on and closed deals in Africa, North & South America, Europe, South and South-east Asia and Australia. To date, she has originated, structured and executed equity, quasi-equity and loan investments worth about $257 million and successfully syndicated loans of up to $204 million. As part of the Agribusiness team at the International Finance Corporation (IFC) she executed project finance transactions and arranged loan syndications for IFC clients in Latin America, Africa and Asia and managed a portfolio of loan and equity assets and relationships with syndicate banks. At global industrial services group, SGS, she led corporate M&A, making acquisitions for the group worldwide. She serves on the Board of the Sight & Life Foundation, a nutrition think-tank.

Mope is a Sainsbury Management Fellow and holds degrees in civil engineering and finance, and an MBA from IMD, Switzerland.

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.

Tosin is a Finance and Investment professional with over 5 years work experience in audit, taxation and accounting. Her experience spans across various sectors including Oil & Gas, Health, Aviation and Agriculture. She worked closely on value creation initiatives at the portfolio companies strengthening and restructuring the finance function across board.

Tosin currently works as an Investment Associate, engaging in deal origination, deal execution and providing support for portfolio management.

She is an associate member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA). She holds a bachelor’s degree in Applied Accounting from Oxford Brookes University.

Khadija is an analyst with Sahel Capital.

Prior to joining Sahel in 2022, she worked as an Internal Auditor at Guaranty Trust Bank (SL) Ltd.

She has an International Master in Management from EADA Business School Barcelona and a B.Sc. in Applied Accounting (First Class Honours) from Institute of Public Administration and Management – University of Sierra Leone (IPAM-USL).