Serial entrepreneur, philanthropist, and expert in African agriculture, nutrition, and social innovation Ndidi Nwuneli was 25 when she accepted the challenging offer to establish and lead the FATE Foundation, an organisation committed to developing local entrepreneurship, in 2000.
Twenty-four years later, this serial entrepreneur has become a formidable African entrepreneur and leader. Ndidi Nwuneli wears multiple hats. She is the founder of Leadership, Effectiveness, Accountability & Professionalism (LEAP) Africa, the Director of The ONE Campaign, and the Co-Founder/Director of AACE Foods and Sahel Capital Partners.
She is also a renowned social entrepreneur and advocate for leadership, ethics, and youth development in Africa. She aims to turn West Africa’s food into gold by engaging the agricultural landscape and building its ecosystem.
Born in March 1975 to a Nigerian father and an American mother, Nwuneli was raised in Nigeria. However, she pursued her undergraduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania and earned an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Her career started in her junior year at the University of Pennsylvania when she held a Summer Business Analyst position with McKinsey & Company in New York. Through her work at McKinsey, South Africa experienced reduced crime rates, and she managed and trained more police officers across 25 South African Police Service Stations.
Over time, Nwuneli, passionate about entrepreneurship and leadership development in Africa, focused on social entrepreneurship to address some pressing challenges in these sectors. Two years after taking up the position at FATE Foundation, she founded the organisation LEAP Africa in 2002.
LEAP Africa is a non-profit organisation dedicated to youth leadership, ethics, and entrepreneurship development in Africa. The organisation’s vision is to equip young Africans with the skills and mindset to lead social change and innovation. LEAP Africa’s key initiatives include leadership programs, entrepreneurship training, and ethical leadership workshops. Through these programs, thousands of youth have been empowered to become changemakers.
Participants of LEAP Africa have launched impactful businesses and are now taking on leadership roles in their communities. The non-profit is dedicated to raising leaders who will transform Africa through interventions for young people that bridge the gap in education, entrepreneurship, employability, active citizenship, and health and well-being.
It annually provides leadership training and coaching to over 30,000 people, including entrepreneurs, teachers, and young people. It has impacted over 1 million direct and indirect beneficiaries and has widespread footprints in about 26 Nigerian states and 8 African countries.
LEAP Africa has partnered with the Ford Foundation, Citi Foundation, World Bank, United States Government, UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office, ALI (Aspen Institute’s Africa Leadership Initiative), Nokia, and the International Youth Foundation.
Last April, Ndidi Nwuneli set out again to lead a global social change movement through her leadership as CEO of The ONE Campaign.
Founded in 2004 by Bono (Paul David), the lead singer of Irish rock band U2, the One Campaign is a global organisation that focuses on eradicating extreme poverty and preventable diseases, especially in Africa. Its mission is to advocate for more funding, better laws, international cooperation, and health, education, and economic development policy reforms.
As the director of The ONE Campaign, Nwuneli plays a crucial role in advancing this mission. She actively advocates for effective policies that will improve healthcare systems and educational opportunities so that the voices of marginalised African communities are heard.
The campaign has helped secure $72 billion to help more people access healthcare and vaccines. In advocating for better laws, its activists pushed for stricter gender-based violence laws in Senegal. During COVID-19, the non-profit brought global activists, leaders, and experts together to secure $97 billion in pandemic recovery funds.
Ndidi Nwuneli is a recipient of an inexhaustible list of awards including Alumni Achievement Award from Harvard Business School (2021), Named amongst Schwab Foundation’s Social Innovators (2020), Honoree of the Global Fund for Women during their 25th Anniversary Celebration in San Francisco (2013), Winner of the Harvard Business School Nigeria Business Club (2013), Leading Social Entrepreneur Award, Forbes: 20 Youngest Power Women In Africa, (2011), amongst many others.
Nwuneli has served on the boards of APF, GAIN—Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, Fairfax Africa, Rockefeller Foundation, Nigerian Economic Summit Group, AACE Foods, Godrej Group, DSM Sustainability Advisory Board, AGRA, and Nigerian Breweries Plc.
The serial entrepreneur is still on the board of some of these organisations.
From 2011 to 2014, she participated as a committee member in the World Economic Forum (WEF) on the Global Agenda Council on New Models of Leadership. In 2023, she was appointed as the Non-Executive Director of Stanbic IBTC.
As a result of her life and work, she has been invited to speak at the UN Commission for Social Development, the World Economic Forum, and the Clinton Global Initiative, among other high-level events.
Her collaborative and purpose-driven leadership style focuses on creating a long-lasting impact in Africa. She believes in servant leadership, which places service to others at the forefront of her mission.
Balancing her multiple leadership roles in her personal start-ups and other ventures, Nwuneli has carefully mastered productive multitasking over the years. She uses her diverse experiences as a mentor to inspire the next generation of African leaders- highlighting the importance of ethics, innovation, and community-building in leaders.
