Dele Babade

Founder & CEO at AfriCapital

Chair

Dele Babade is the Founder and CEO of AfriCapital LLC, New York, and a veteran investment banker and corporate finance adviser with nearly four decades of experience across global financial institutions, private equity and cross-border advisory.

A lawyer by training, he holds law degrees from the University of London, specialised in Corporate Finance Law at UCL, and was called to the English Bar-Lincoln's Inn.

He began his career with Midland Montagu in London, now HSBC Investment Bank, before holding senior positions at Citibank and Nomura International. He subsequently served as Head of Citibank's Sub-Saharan Africa Corporate Finance and Investment Banking business in Johannesburg and later as CEO of Ecobank Capital in London and a member of the Group Executive Committee of Ecobank Transnational.

From 2017 to 2019, Dele served as Senior Advisor to The Carlyle Group's Sub-Saharan Africa team. His career has included advising on major M&A, capital raising and strategic transactions across Africa for leading international and African corporations, including MTN, De Beers, Heineken and Shell.

He has also held a number of senior board and leadership positions, including Chairman of African Risk Capacity and Chairman of Diamond Bank Plc. In 2020, he became the founding Managing Director and CEO of Greenwich Merchant Bank.

Through AfriCapital, he continues to advise corporations, investors and financial institutions on significant investment, financing and strategic transactions across Africa.