Mrs Oluseye Sandey – Chairman

Mrs. Oluseye Sandey has over 30 years experience in auditing, budgeting and reporting, business development and taxation. She started her career with Akintola Williams Deloitte & Co where she qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1988.

In June 1994, she joined Coca-Cola Nigeria Limited a fully owned subsidiary of The Coca-Cola Company as Budget Manager for the Nigeria Region and served in various capacities of increasing responsibilities till July 2002. In August 2002, she was appointed Region Finance Manager for Coca-Cola West Africa Region based in Abidjan Cote d’Ivoire. In this role, she had responsibility for end-to-end Finance Operations for 23 Countries in West and Central Africa. In August 2003, she moved to Coca-Cola Export Corporation, based in Casablanca Morocco as Region Finance Manager for 24 Countries in North and West Africa. In 2005, she was appointed to The Board of Coca-Cola Nigeria and Equatorial Africa as the Division Finance Director for 10 Countries in West Africa. She became the first ever Nigerian Finance Director for the Division.

In 2009, she was appointed Business Development Director for the North and West Africa Division of The Coca-Cola Company where she had responsibility for implementing new business opportunities, in Nigeria and the Equatorial Africa Countries. In 2010, she moved to Coca-Cola South Africa as the Finance Operations Director for Africa responsible for providing Financial Services to all Coca-Cola Business Units in Africa, Middle East and Pakistan. She held this position until August 2014 when she returned to Nigeria after 20 years of service with Coca-Cola.

She joined Honeywell Flour Mills Plc as Finance Director in September 2015 and was a member of the Board of Directors till April 2017 when she left to pursue her personal goals.

She is the Founder of The Acts Of Barnabas Foundation, which is focused on helping individuals turn oppression into opportunities. Her Foundation seeks to reach individuals to INSPIRE them to BUILD small-scale businesses and EMPOWER them with the resources they need to grow these businesses sustainably. She is actively interested in creating opportunities, establishing connections/partnerships, mentoring and counselling.

Mrs. Sandey holds a B.Sc (Hons) in Managerial & Administrative Studies from Aston University, UK and an MBA from Heriot-Watt University, UK. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, a member of the Institute of Taxation and a member of the Institute of Directors.

Mrs. Sandey plays the Piano and loves to sing. She is happily married with children.

Ambassador Themba Thabethe – Vice Chairman

Ambassador Themba Thabethe (fondly called “Ambassador Themba”) studied Law in the former USSR and Diplomacy in Belgium, France, Germany, South Africa and the United Kingdom. He holds an LLM degree, a Post-graduate Diploma in Diplomacy and several other qualifications.

For at least 20 years, he served as a career diplomat in South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation (former Department of Foreign Affairs). For a 5 year period prior to this, he was at various times, Charge d’ Affaires to the USSR and Chief Representative to the Russian Federation for the African National Congress.

Subsequently, after the 1994 elections, he became South African Ambassador to Madagascar and High Commissioner to Zambia, State Law Adviser, Director: Central Africa, Acting Chief Director: West & Central Africa and Acting Chief Director: Central Africa at the Department of International Relations and Cooperation.

He is widely travelled, having spent nearly 40years studying, working and or living in other African countries and Europe which has afforded him a clear understanding of the issues, developments and challenges facing Africa and the world.

Amongst his greatest achievements during this period was that he single-handedly drafted the organizational structure of the Department of Foreign Affairs of post-apartheid South Africa, which facilitated the development of relations with all countries and made it possible to recruit and place black people at all levels into the Department. Further to that, his research and recommendations on mercenarism opened the way for the drafting and enactment of the Foreign Military Assistance Act of 1998 which was pivotal in curbing alleged South African mercenarism on the African continent.

Upon retirement from public service, he went into private business and has been part of a number of entrepreneurial initiatives around the continent. Thus, continuing under new conditions and a different capacity, the trade and investment promotion work he did as a senior government official.

His interest in African history and culture coupled with his natural ability to learn languages enable him to feel at home wherever he sets his foot on our beloved continent. He speaks most South African languages, French and Russian.

Ms Nweti Bila | Member

Ms Nweti Bila, a South African citizen, is a business woman with vast experience and interests in various sectors of the economy including FMCG, energy, transport & logistics, consulting, mining, automotive engineering and commodities trading. She is the Founder/Chief Executive Officer of Rendzo Enterprise Support, a company focused on provision of business policy development and enterprise solutions to small and medium scale businesses in South Africa.

She holds a Master’s degree in Global Political Economics with specialization in Development Finance from Sussex University, Brighton, United Kingdom. She has attended courses in International Finance Markets, Rural Development Policy & Management, Co-operatives Entrepreneurship Development, Corporate Governance and Women Advancement and Economic Leadership in Africa.

She was responsible for the formulation of a number of government policy and strategy development, programme design and implementation while in the South African Public Service before she took a voluntary retirement in 2007 to go into private sector as an Executive in Mohlaleng Financial Technologies, an IT & Telecom company focused on development of banking technologies for the Co-operative, Micro-Finance and Commercial Banks in line with sector regulations.

Her public service career spanned over 17 years. She was Chief Director at the Department of Trade & Industry from 1999 to 2007 where she was responsible for Broad-based Empowerment models within the Enterprise Development Division of the DTI, which incorporated Co-operatives Developments, Trusts, ESOPs. In this position, she developed the Co-operatives Act No. 14 of 2005 and Regulations and the famous Co-operatives Incentive Grant which helped mobilized co-operatives formation for savings and enterprising nationally. She also assisted the National Treasury in the Development of the Co-operatives Banks Act 2007 and Regulations. She was South Africa’s representative on the Industrial Development Board (IDB) and the Programme and Budget Committee (PBC) of United Nations Industrial Organization (“UNIDO”) and the Southern African Customs Union (“SACU”).

Between 1997 and 1999, she was the Chief Economist at the Department of Finance/National Treasury where she was responsible for the directorate Multilateral Development Finance with the sole responsibility of managing the relationship between the South African Government and Development & Multilateral Finance Institutions, such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and the African Development Bank promoting South African and the Southern African Development Commission policy influence in these institutions, in order to harness resources towards domestic and regional economic growth and development.

Prior to this, she held various positions in the Department of Education in Gauteng Province where she played prominent role in the formulation of various policies that fostered increased access to education for children between 1990 and 1997.

She seats on a number of Advisory Councils for National and Provincial Governments in South Africa and Boards of companies including but not limited to Bloemfontein Anglo-Boer War Museum Council, Black Business Council, National Federated Chamber of Commerce (“NAFCOC”), Women Advancement and Economic Leadership in Africa, WSGF Group, and she is an Auctioneer for Auction Inc, a subsidiary of Masingita Group of Companies.

Mr. Emeka Odenigwe | Non-Executive Director

Mr Odenigwe is an Attorney at Law, Solicitor & Investment Consultant of over 30 years. He has  special expertise and particular doctrinal emphasis on Public Service/Sector Reforms. His PhD Thesis is on The Legal Framework for Public Service/Sector Reforms and Development in Nigeria.

He is the Principal Partner/Consultant of Odemo Chambers, a firm of Solicitors, Advocates & Property Consultants, since 1984 to date. He was appointed the Honourable Commissioner for Youth Development & Sports in 1992 in Enugu State.

He worked briefly as the Executive Director; Legal & Security Services of the Management Concessionaire of the Lagos International Trade Fair Complex, Lagos from 2007 to 2009. He is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Marama Heritage Petroleum Development Company Limited and the Executive Vice Chairman of Summer Projects Investment Limited . He is a Member of the Enugu State Council on Commercialization & Privatization.

Mr. Odenigwe is an avid team player and an apostle of integrity as an integral part of any corporate entity. He enjoys playing Golf.

‘Niyi Oloruntoba | Chief Executive Officer

Mr. Oloruntoba trained as an Investment Analyst with over 16years post qualification experience spanning Publishing, Oil &Gas and Financial Services industries. He acquired tremendous experience in key industry areas that include Sales, Asset Management, Corporate and Investment Banking within the Sub-Saharan Africa with his involvement in the origination, structuring and execution of financial advisory and capital raising deals worth over US$5billion, and had co-advised Funds with AUM in excess of US$1billion in the last 10 years.

He has led teams in major transactions comprising Mergers and Acquisitions, Business Restructuring and Capital Raising (both debt and equity) for small & medium enterprises, large corporates/multinational companies and governments. He possesses strong capability in deal origination, structuring and execution, a rare skills combination in the industry.
His working career has seen him taking various leading roles in Corporate and Investment Banking in Greenwich Trust Limited, former Intercontinental Bank (now Access Bank) and Skye Bank, all in Nigeria, between 2001 and 2010. In 2011, he joined The Talitha Group, a global investment banking firm, as Regional Managing Director, Sub-Saharan Africa with regional office in Johannesburg, South Africa to lead the Group’s foray into the SSA.

In January 2013, he was appointed as Chief Executive Officer, Butterpot Capital Nigeria Limited, and led a team of dynamic individuals to acquire Independent Securities Limited (a Dealing member of the Nigerian Stock
Exchange). Niyi spearheaded the restructuring, recapitalization and repositioning of Independent Securities to take advantage of emerging opportunities within SSA.
He left Butterpot Capital in January 2016 to join Rosebank Capital.

Neville Munien – Vice President, Southern Africa

Neville holds a Bachelor of Science (Mathematics and Computer Science) degree from University of KwaZulu-Natal and an MBA (Finance) from the Wits Business School, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa.

He has more than 25 years of banking experience, spanning Software Development, Risk Management, Project Finance and Mining Finance. He has worked at Standard Bank (1996-2007) and Nedbank (2007-2022). He has acquired tremendous experience in Deal Origination, Financial Advisory, Deal Structuring and assisting with debt raising for medium and large corporates, leading teams in the execution of deals worth over USD 3 billion. He has developed strong networks in the Mining space (both local and international) with strong capability in Deal Origination and Financial Modelling.

He has also served as Director, Treasurer and EXCO member on the Australian Business Chamber of Commerce of Southern Africa (ABCSA).

He left Nedbank, from his position as Principal: Mining & Resources, in September 2022 to join Rosebank Capital.