Ope Onibokun 2019 Speaker

Head of Project Finance

Arise

Biography

Ope is the Head of Project Finance for Arise where he focuses on raising and structuring financing for various projects in Africa. Arise, backed by shareholders such as A.P Moller Capital, Olam International and Africa Finance Corporation is a leading pan African infrastructure developer particular focused on design, finance and operation of integrated transport and logistic projects.

Prior to joining Arise, Ope was an Infrastructure Investment Specialist lead at Investec Asset Management (IAM), in the Africa Credit team where he focused on originating and structuring transactions in the infrastructure sector across Africa. In particular, Ope was part of the Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund (EAIF) investment team, a US$1 billion debt fund managed by IAM where he successfully participated in financing valued at over US$2 billion in the power, transportation, logistics and telecom sectors.

Earlier in his career, Ope was an Assistant Vice President at Citigroup’s Project and Infrastructure Finance group, providing financial advisory and arranging debt facilities for project finance transactions in the power, oil & gas and infrastructure sectors for clients in Asia. While at Citi, he worked in the New York, Seoul and Hong Kong Offices. Before that, he was an Associate at Booz & Company (now Strategy & PWC) in the Energy, Chemical & Utilities group based out of Dallas, Texas, providing management and strategic advice to US clients. He started his career as a software engineer for Hughes Network System, a satellite telecommunication company in the US.

Ope holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering and Management Information System from the University of Maryland Baltimore County, Master of Science in Computer Science from Johns Hopkins University and Master of Business Administration from Duke University Fuqua School of Business.