About Acha
Acha Leke is a director and leads our Lagos office, which he helped establish in 2010. Widely recognized as one of Africa’s top young leaders, Acha is passionate about unlocking prosperity for the continent and its people. In Nigeria and across Africa, Acha works with key public institutions and major companies to strengthen organizations, build capabilities, and drive strategies for accelerated growth and development.
Acha was a lead author of “Lions on the move: The progress and potential of African economies,” a seminal McKinsey report that has drawn new attention to Africa’s growth prospects; it was named the best initiative that promoted Africa as an investment destination in 2010 and has been featured in publications such as The Economist and The Wall Street Journal. He is a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum and a member of the organization’s Regional Agenda Council on Africa, and he was selected by Forbes.com as 1 of the 10 “youngest power men” in Africa.
Acha has served a wide range of private-, public-, and social-sector clients in countries including Botswana, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, and Uganda.
He developed a robust strategy for a West African country, for example, to effectively leverage its natural-gas resources to drive economic development and job creation. And he led a holistic program to transform a national oil company into a commercial performance-driven enterprise as part of a broader reform of the oil and gas sector.
Acha’s work with private-sector clients includes leading a program to transform a large Nigerian bank into the leading bank in the region. He also developed a turnaround and growth strategy for a West African air service provider, helped a leading mobile player in Africa integrate acquisitions to create the second-largest emerging-market wireless operator, and worked with an Asian industrial multinational to develop a 5-year strategy and concrete plan to build a $1 billion business in Africa.
A key focus of Acha’s work is in supporting investment in Africa. He helped develop the strategy and business model for a new pan-African investment bank. He assisted a leading European development-finance institution in shaping an alternative investment strategy to deploy $1.5 billion across sub-Saharan Africa. And he has led due diligence for global and African investors looking to acquire major companies in the region.
Acha is a cofounder of the African Leadership Network, an invitation-only network of African leaders who aspire to bring prosperity to the continent. He is also a cofounder and board member of the African Leadership Academy, a coeducational boarding school that aims to develop the next generation of African leaders.
Acha is originally from Cameroon and is fluent in both English and French.
Published work
“Africa: Cracking the next growth market,” Harvard Business Review, May 2011
“Lions on the move: The progress and potential of African economies,” McKinsey Global Institute, June 2010
Past experience
| United Nations |
Part-time consultant |
Education
| Stanford University |
PhD in electrical engineering |
| Stanford University |
MEng in engineering management, industrial engineering and electrical engineering |
| Georgia Institute of Technology |
BEng in electrical engineering |