Rolake Akinkugbe-Filani

An award-winning and reputable energy and infrastructure sector executive, Rolake has more than 15 years of track record of helping to finance and scale businesses across Africa. She is currently the Chief Commercial Officer of leading infrastructure developer, Mixta Africa, helping the group craft and executes its commercialization strategy and sustainability solutions for the firm’s real estate, infrastructure, and housing projects across Nigeria, Senegal, Morocco, Tunisia, Cote d’Ivoire & Ethiopia. She is also the founder of InaTidé, a pan-African non-profit social enterprise providing renewable energy entrepreneurs with insights and data analytics to drive decision making and help them scale, and prepare for fundraising.

She was also the Senior Advisor to IFU, the Danish Investment Fund, and sat on the global advisory board of Canadian Private Equity firm, Stonechair Capital advising on its renewables and gas sector Energy Africa fund. From 2014 – 2019 she was head of energy for FBN Capital and FBNQuest Merchant Bank, raising debt and equity capital for local energy companies, and during which time she was also a member from 2017-2019, of the private sector economic advisory group advising the Office of the Vice President on a range of national energy sector development policy issues. Prior to FBNQuest Merchant Bank, she was head of the energy, infrastructure, and power research team at pan-African Ecobank Group covering 33 African markets out of London. In her early career, she worked as a political risk analyst with Control Risks and Eurasia Group and worked in international development with the European Commission in Brussels and the International Crisis Group in Dakar, Senegal.

A fluent French speaker, highly sought-after industry expert, and engaging commentator able to expertly distill complex topics on global infrastructure, energy, economy, markets and business on global markets and energy, on platforms like BBC, CNN, CNBC, and others, she is noted globally for her astute analysis and ability to communicate business concepts to audiences comprising senior business leaders and decision-makers. She was recognized as a top 275 Global Female Influencer Executives (2020) in Energy by the UK’s Energy Council, recognized as Young Economic leader in Africa, by the Choiseul Institute (2020), and was listed in the MIPAD 100 Under 40 in the 2018 Business and Entrepreneurship Category. She has a BSc & an MSc degree from the London School of Economics (LSE) and a joint MBA degree from the London School of Economics, HEC School of Management Paris, and NYU’s Leonard Stern School of Business (TRIUM).

Rolake sits on the global advisory board of Persistent Energy, Africa’s Climate Venture Builder, and the board of the African Energy Chamber working with the Energy Transition and Investment Committees. She is a member of the Executive Council of WIMBIZ, Nigeria’s leading networking for women, where she chairs the Private Sector Advocacy committee.