Chuma Ajene 2024 Speaker

Head of Strategic Investments

Access Bank

Biography

An MBA Graduate of Harvard Business School, Mr. Ajene is currently Access Bank’s Global Head of Strategic Investments and leads the group’s investment and funding activities across its various business segments (banking, payments, asset management, et al) on a pan-African basis.

He was previously Corporate Development Director, Head of Strategic Investments and Financing at Atlas Mara based out of Dubai and Johannesburg, from where he led deal structuring and negotiation of several investments and divestments over the several years dedicated to growing the Atlas Mara business in Africa.

Mr. Ajene started his career at Goldman Sachs as an Investment Banking Analyst within the Financial Institutions Group in New York; and spent the years following at the International Finance Corporation, the private sector investments arm of the World Bank in Washington DC before joining Deutsche Bank in its New York and then London offices focused on delivering mergers and acquisitions advice and capital solutions to clients within financial institutions space in North America as well as EMEA.

Mr. Ajene has completed over $30 billion in capital raising and strategic transactions, including over $10 billion on the African continent in the last five years.