Nneka Eze, MD at VestedWorld

Nneka Eze is a Managing Director at VestedWorld, an Africa-focused venture capital firm delivering impact and returns in agriculture, consumer goods, and enabling technology with a focus on Ghana, Nigeria, and Kenya. Nneka had been investing personally into companies before investing alongside VestedWorld in a transaction. A year later in 2017, she joined VestedWorld’s Investment Committee and has since reviewed deals across sectors and geographies including investments in Beacon Power Services, DrugStoc, Terragon, and Tomato Jos.

Prior to VestedWorld, Nneka worked to deepen investment in African businesses and entrepreneurs for over a decade having served as the Founding Partner of Dalberg’s Nigeria office and co-lead of Dalberg’s Global Agriculture & Food Security Practice. She focused on a range of sectors including agriculture, creative industries, financial services, urban resilience, education, youth employment, health, innovation and inclusive growth.

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Nneka serves on the inaugural National Advisory Board for Impact Investing in Nigeria, affiliated with the Global Steering Group for Impact Investing. In 2019, she developed the strategy for the Impact Investors’ Foundation of Nigeria (a non-profit which aims to unlock impact investing in Nigeria and which established Nigeria’s National Advisory Board for Impact Investing) and sits on the Board.

From 2015 to 2021, she served on the West Africa Steering Committee for the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE). She also serves on the Board of Directors of The Resolution Project, a global non-profit which aims to develop socially responsible young leaders involved in developing social enterprises and has impacted nearly 3 million lives.

Eze holds an AB in economics cum laude from Harvard University. She previously worked as a consultant at McKinsey & Company, in investment banking at Lehman Brothers, and conducting microfinance research with a Grameen network microfinance bank in Chiapas, Mexico. In addition to her work as a consultant and investor, she has written a number of articles and op-eds on Africa’s growth trajectory and investment opportunities in various publications.

Her frame of reference has been based on Black feminism, and her understanding of race and class struggles in America as an underrepresented minority. Applying this perspective to an African context helps her to understand how class dynamics work, how biases affect capital allocations, and how important it is for Black people to access the basics and the opportunities. As part of this interest, she has served on the Black Philanthropy Month’s Funding Equity Advisory Group.

Nneka speaks intermediate / professional French and fluent English and has worked across Africa, and in Asia, Latin America, and North America having lived in Kenya, Senegal, and Nigeria. She moved to Kenya in 2009 and has spent the majority of her professional career in Africa.