Welcome to the next in our Network Impact Insights series, in which we are exploring the work of networks which are impacting the rural entrepreneurial ecosystem in East and West Africa.
In this episode you will hear Creative Metier CEO Glynis Rankin in conversation with Adenike Adeyemi, CEO and Executive Director of FATE Foundation, Nigeria. They explore the incredible work FATE Foundation are doing to support entrepreneurs and the impact FATE Foundation has on the wider environment for entrepreneurs in Nigeria. They also explore FATE Foundation’s Alumni community, led and inspired by entrepreneurs to provide support through the lifetime of their entrepreneurial journey. Do listen right through this interview if you are any way interested in networks and a vision of empowerment for the future that you might work to create.
We hope you enjoy this conversation, and keep an eye out for Part 2 next week in which Adenike discusses the impact of the application of a networks approach.
“The first thing is giving back to a community and to an organisation that they received from. Quite a lot of entrepreneurs that are in the FATE community are very appreciative of the knowledge, the insights, the resources, in some cases, funding that they got through the experience at FATE.” Adenike Adeyemi, CEO, FATE Foundation
Adenike Adeyemi
Adenike Adeyemi is an expert in small and growing businesses, social entrepreneurship, institutional transformation, non profit sustainability, philanthropy and corporate governance. Her 20 year experience includes working in the private, public and development sectors to develop, fund and implement innovative programmes and high impact policies for MSMEs and young people.
She is the Chief Executive Officer for FATE Foundation, Nigeria’s foremost business incubator which has connected over 193,000 aspiring and emerging entrepreneurs with a range of resources including capacity building, advisory services, mentoring and financing to start, grow and scale their businesses. Under her leadership, the Foundation set up the FATE Institute as the thought leader on Nigeria’s MSMEs and has produced 13 research reports on the entrepreneurship ecosystem. She also led the expansion of the FATE School of Entrepreneurship’s incubation and accelerator programs to 27 states and published 9 books for Nigerian entrepreneurs. She oversees FATE Giving which raised, disbursed and closed a ≈$1,000,000 Fund for the FATE Philanthropy Coalition for COVID-19 Support Fund in 2020.
Adenike has a Masters of Public Administration and a Masters of Arts in Diplomacy and International Relations from Seton Hall University (2005) and a BA in Linguistics from the University of Ibadan (2001). She is a 2020 Eisenhower Global Women Leaders Fellow. She also has wide ranging Board experience and is the Lead Facilitator for the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) MSME Community of Practice and the Chairman, Technical Sub Committee, 2022 NESG Nigerian Economic Summit.
We would like to thank Small Foundation for their support for this research, Converge for their willingness to share their work which was one of the inspirations for this initiative, and the FATE Foundation team who entered so enthusiastically into this work.