• Friday, March 29, 2024
businessday logo

BusinessDay

Ada Osademey-Udechukwu, Gender & Economic Inclusion Specialist at IIFC

Ada Osademey – Udechukwu

Ada Osademey-Udechukwu is a gender specialist and finance professional with a demonstrated history of working in the banking industry and leading programs with an objective to reduce gender gaps across employment and entrepreneurship in Nigeria and key African markets.

International Finance Corporation (IFC), believes that a strong and engaged private sector is indispensable to ending extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity. That is where IFC comes in. They have more than 60 years of experience in unlocking private investment, creating markets and opportunities where they’re needed most. Since 1956, IFC has leveraged $2.6 billion in capital to deliver more than $285 billion in financing for businesses in developing countries.

Across the world, their investments and advice help the private sector create jobs, improve basic services, foster small enterprises, and more. These stories demonstrate how IFC clients are making a difference in people’s lives.

Read Also: CSR-in-Action takes on gender-based violence, empowers women in Badagry

Ada’s 17 years’ experience in the financial services sector spans bank operations, consumer and SME finance, products & segments management with a focus on women’s financial inclusion, and their participation in entrepreneurship and the workplace.

In her role as Head, Women Banking at Access Bank, she supported women sub-segments in Nigeria and key African markets (Ghana, Rwanda, Zambia, Gambia and Sierra Leone) through the women’s market program – the W Initiative. The initiative won several local and international awards, including a three-year consecutive Central Bank’s award for Excellence in Women’s Economic Empowerment.

She has contributed to reducing gender gaps in access to finance for WSMEs in Nigeria with over four thousand WSMEs supported in accessing loans and more than fifty thousand women benefiting from the non-financial services offerings of the program at Access Bank, one of which is a mini MBA developed in partnership with the IFC. In the course of her work, she also engaged with companies who were clients of the bank, to advocate for gender inclusive policies.

Prior to that, she pioneered two strategic units in the bank; First, to support the implementation of its retail strategy and secondly, to support the implementation of its women’s market program. She also managed enterprise-wide projects to support the bank’s strategic growth.

Osademey-Udechukwu loves to develop organisational talent and currently mentors a network of young female professionals.

Her professional development includes the management program at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, All Stars Academy for Banking on Women and Lancaster University.

She is a starter, excellent at birthing concepts and delivering them into legacy with clear business and social results.