Deconstructing the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): How can we start applying these principles to the African market?

Tariye Gbadegesin is an investment professional with 20 years of experience in the financial services sector and over US$ 3 billion of transaction experience.

She is the Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer of ARM Harith Infrastructure Fund Managers (ARMHIIL); a Joint Venture between Asset & Resource Management Company Ltd (ARM) , a Nigerian institutional investor with US$2.3 billion of assets under management and Harith General Partners (Pty) Ltd (Harith), a South African infrastructure fund manager with over US$1 billion under management.

Tariye is a member of the Advisory Council of the Millennium Challenge Corporation in Washington D.C. She is part of The United Nations Development Program Working Group for Insurance-based Financial Instruments to support Climate Finance as well as the The Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance.

She was on the founding team to establish the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), a pan African DFI with US$ 6 billion under management where she led several of AFC’s investments in the sectors of power, transport, industrials, and telecommunications infrastructure. Tariye was the head of the Industrial and Telecommunications Business at AFC, building the business into an US$ 800 million allocator of capital across Africa for the sector.

Tariye has global experience from working at the International Monetary Fund, Boston Consulting Group and PricewaterhouseCoopers. She has a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Amherst College, and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.

Chinua is the Chief Executive Officer of InfraCredit, the first 'AAA' rated specialised local currency infrastructure credit enhancement facility in Nigeria. He has garnered over 15 years experience in corporate/structured finance and debt capital market roles. Chinua has a strong and practical know-how of domestic debt capital markets with a firm interest in market development, and has acted as a lead adviser in the establishment of key development finance institutions in Nigeria. He was the project lead for the establishment of a Nigeria Infrastructure Credit Enhancement Facility (now InfraCredit) and prior to this role, the Managing Director of Dunn Loren Merrifield Advisory Partners, a corporate finance advisory firm. He holds an M.Sc. in Finance & Financial Law from University of London and studied law at the University of Lagos. He is currently the chairperson of the Regulation Consolidation Sub-Committee of FMDQ Debt Capital Market Development Project.

Sergey Dergachev joined Union Investment´s fixed income portfolio management team in April 2008. As Functional Head Emerging Markets Corporate Debt and Senior Portfolio Manager, he is responsible for the emerging markets corporate bonds unit, which he has built up at Union Investment since 2009. In addition to that, Sergey plays a vital role in developing and promoting ESG themes and integration for EM debt portfolios at Union Investment. Prior to joining Union Investment, he worked at Frankfurt Trust from 2006 till 2008, as portfolio manager managing emerging markets fixed income debt portfolios (sovereign and corporate debt).

Sergey studied international business administration at the European Business School in Oestrich-Winkel, as well as at the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce in Rouen and the University of Westminster in London. In addition to that, Sergey is a certified chartered financial analyst (CFA), financial risk manager (FRM) and chartered alternative investment analyst (CAIA). He also holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from the University of Durham.

In her role of Head of Africa & Middle East for the PRI, Nicole’s focus is on identifying and addressing the needs of African investors with respect to integrating ESG into investment processes in an effort to foster the maximisation of long-term sustainable financial returns across the continent.

Prior to joining the PRI Nicole’s career as a development economist has focused on supporting local and international organisations across the public and private sector in the design and implementation of strategies aimed at achieving large-scale developmental impact in Africa.