About Us

Our History

Established in 1879 as a trading company, UAC has evolved to become an investment holding company active in 6 sectors of the Nigerian economy 

[slider]1879|The United African Company was formed from the merger of 4 companies trading on the River Niger;1880-86|National African Company Ltd took over the assets of The United African Company.Renamed to Royal Niger Limited;1900|Royal Niger's charter was revoked and its territories(Southern Nigeria protectorate) transferred to the British government;1914|The Southern Nigeria protectorate and the Northern Nigeria protectorate were united to form Nigeria;1919|The Niger Company was bought by Lever Brothers.;1929|The United Africa Company was formed by the joint agreements of The African and Eastern Trade Corporation and the Niger Company;1931-43|Incorporated in Lagos as Nigerian Motors Ltd. A subsidiary of The United Africa Company which later became UAC International. The company changes its name to United Africa Company Ltd in 1943;1948|Kingsway Stores was established. Nigeria's first chain of department stores;1965|Established MDS Logistics to provide warehousing services to UAC’s merchandising division;1974-77|40% of the company’s shares was acquired by Nigerians in 1974 and 20% in 1977 in compliance with the Nigerian Enterprises Promotion Act. Unilever’s stake in UACI was now 40%;1986- 91|Mr. Bigg’s was launched in 1986. UAC Ltd adopted the name UAC of Nigeria Plc in 1991;1992|UAC acquired 35.7% of CAP Plc from ICI Nigeria Ltd;1994|Unilever divested its interest in UAC to local investors;2010|Entered into strategic partnership with Tiger Foods in its packaged food and beverages segment;2013|Set up UPDC REIT, Acquires 51% of Portland Paints;2018-19|UAC transitions from a centrally run conglomerate to a lean holding company;2020|Sold controlling stake in MDS Logistics to Imperial Logistics[/slider]

UAC Today

We are an evergreen investment holding company that aims to generate attractive long-term returns for investors by growing our businesses into market leaders in their respective segments.

Our investment approach is predicated on the following core principles:

Return Potential

We seek companies that show demonstrated ability to scale and can be transformed through the implementation of operational best practices

Management Team

We prioritise investing in companies with an innovative and collaborative management team which we will work with to drive growth and profitability

Sector Selection

We focus on sectors with long-term growth potential, skill based competition, sound business ethics and are cash generative

We help our companies excel by focusing on these pillars:

Leadership

Khalifa Biobaku

Chairman and Non-Executive Director
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Folasope Aiyesimoju

Group Managing Director
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Funke Ijaiya-Oladipo

Group Finance Director
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Debola Badejo

Group Investment Director
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Karl Toriola

Independent Non-Executive Director
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Suzanne Iroche

Independent Non-Executive Director
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Bolaji Odunsi

Independent Non-Executive Director
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Folasope Aiyesimoju

Group Managing Director
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Funke Ijaiya-Oladipo

Group Finance Director
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Ayomipo Wey

Group General Counsel / Company Secretary
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Debola Badejo

Group Investment Director
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Tunji Rabiu

Group Internal Auditor
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Queenette Durosinmi-Etti

Chief Operating Officer
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Abosede Ogundiyun

Head Of Talent Strategy
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Khalifa Biobaku

CHAIRMAN AND NON-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Mr. Biobaku is the Chairman and Non-Executive Director on the Board of UAC, having been appointed Chairman on 5 February 2025. Prior to his appointment as Chairman, he served as Vice Chairman, a position to which he was elected by the Board on June 21, 2023. He joined the UAC Board on March 29, 2022.

Mr. Biobaku is a director of Themis Capital Management, UAC’s core shareholder, and the Founder and Director of Dalio Property Development Company Limited, an active real estate investment company in Nigeria with a significant shareholding in UAC.

Mr. Biobaku is a seasoned finance and investment professional with over twenty years of experience spanning investment banking, fund management and private equity across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. For almost 10 years, Mr. Biobaku was a co-Managing Partner of Blakeney Management, London, a specialist emerging markets investment firm. He has also worked at Goldman Sachs International, London; Morgan Stanley International, London; Davidson Kempner Partners, London.

He has extensive experience in strategy development and execution, capital raising, corporate actions and restructurings, commercial negotiations and effective team building. Mr. Biobaku graduated with a M.Eng in Engineering, Economics and Management from Oxford University. He has a Post-Graduate degree in Real Estate Economics and Finance from the London School of Economics.

Folasope Aiyesimoju

GROUP MANAGING DIRECTOR
APPOINTED APRIL 2019

Fola is a finance professional with experience spanning corporate finance, principal investing and private equity. Over the course of his career he has lived and worked in Sub-Saharan Africa’s most important economies gaining experience of the operating landscape in the region. Fola is the founder of Themis Capital Management, an investment firm focused on concentrating capital and talent on high-potential opportunities in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Prior to founding Themis, he worked with Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, a leading global investment firm with $168 billion in assets under management. His experience also includes working with the Standard Bank Group, where he led mergers and acquisitions in Nigeria.

Fola spent the early part of his career with Ocean and Oil Holdings Limited, a principal investment firm in Nigeria and ARM Investment Managers, one of Nigeria’s leading investment advisory and wealth management firms.

Mr. Aiyesimoju also sits on the Boards of Chemical and Allied Products(CAP) PLC,MDS Logistics Limited, Grand Cereals Limited, UAC Foods Limited and UPDC Plc.

He holds a B.Sc (Hons) degree in Estate Management from the University of Lagos, where he was awarded a Certificate of Excellence in Real estate development and finance, and earned the right to use the CFA designation in 2006.

Funke Ijaiya-Oladipo

GROUP FINANCE DIRECTOR

Funke is a high-achieving, results-driven, finance professional. She has over 17 years operational finance, corporate finance and capital markets experience. With a focus on connecting Africa to the world and the world to Africa, she has also advised local and international companies on raising equity capital, mergers & acquisitions, restructurings, and divestments in Nigeria, South Africa and the United Kingdom.

She was appointed as Group Finance Director at UAC with effect from 28 July 2021. Prior to this appointment, Funke was UAC’s Group Chief Financial Officer, with overall responsibility for the company’s finance function. Her previous roles with UAC include serving as Head of Investor Relations, responsible for strategic stakeholder management and aligning UAC’s capital market activities to its strategic priorities.

Funke began her career in investment banking at Goldman Sachs in London. Her experience also includes working with the Standard Bank Group, where she completed over 25 transactions in 10 years. In Nigeria (Stanbic IBTC Capital), she led the equity capital markets division, executed M&A deals as a Senior Vice President, and originated cross-border M&A as a Corporate Finance Manager in South Africa.

Funke holds a B.Sc. degree in Economics and an M.Sc. degree in Project & Enterprise Management, both from University College London (UCL). She is a CFA charter holder and a member of the advisory board of Sponsors for Educational Opportunity Africa (SEO Africa), a non-profit leadership organization.

Debola Badejo

GROUP INVESTMENT DIRECTOR

Debola Badejo is an operations and finance executive with over 16 years of experience spanning business management, principal investing and, investment banking across North America, Europe, and Africa. Debola Badejo has core expertise in strategy, commercial operations, capital allocation, and effective team building. He also has extensive experience in advising companies on various corporate actions including, M&A, capital raising, and restructurings.

Debola Badejo is currently the Group Head, Investments at UAC of Nigeria PLC (“UAC”), where he is responsible for driving value creation and growth across UAC’s portfolio companies and seeking new investment opportunities for the group. He also serves as the Executive Vice Chairman at UAC Restaurants Limited (“UACR”), where he is responsible for the growth and financial outcomes of the business. He previously served as the Managing Director of UACR, where he led the turnaround of the business through the roll-out of corporate-owned restaurants across Nigeria. Prior to UACR, Debola was an Investment Executive at UAC where he managed the group’s interests in the Food and Beverage sectors. Debola Badejo sits on the Boards of Chemical and Allied Products PLC, UAC Foods Limited, Grand Cereals Limited, Livestock Feeds PLC and MDS Logistics Limited.

Prior to joining UAC in 2019, Debola Badejo was a Principal at Themis Capital Management (Themis), an active investment company focused on concentrating capital, talent, and expertise on a select number of long-term investments in Africa.

Debola Badejo previously spent over 10 years as a Corporate Finance professional in various leading investment banks, including Standard Bank in Lagos, London, and Johannesburg, where he executed M&A, restructuring and capital raising transactions across Sub-Saharan Africa; and Morgan Stanley in New York, where he worked on multi-billion-dollar transactions for large corporates across North America.

Debola Badejo graduated with a B.Sc in Systems Engineering from the University of Virginia in May 2008 and holds MBA degrees from both Columbia Business School and London Business School through the schools’ Joint Global Executive MBA program.

Karl Toriola

INDEPENDENT NON-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
APPOINTED JANUARY 2020

Karl is the Vice President, West and Central Africa for the MTN Group, with responsibility for operations in the West and Central African region. Karl’s prior role in executive leadership include serving as Group Operations Executive for MTN Group, Chief Executive Officer for MTN Cameroon; Chief Technical Officer (“CTO”) for MTN Nigeria (Where he won the Best CTO Award in 2009); Chief Operations/Regions Officer for Vmobile Nigeria; and Support Manager, West African region for L.M. Ericsson Nigeria Ltd.

His past experience in non-executive capacity on boards of directors include serving as Chairman, MTN/Areeba Guinea, Non-Executive Director, Jumia Africa; Non-Executive Director, American Towers Uganda, Non-Executive Director, MTN Subsidiaries in Francophone West Africa.

Suzanne Iroche

INDEPENDENT NON-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
APPOINTED AUGUST 2019

Mrs. Iroche , has several years of broad based experience in Merchant and Commercial Banking spanning the areas of Corporate and Institutional Banking, Marketing, Correspondent and International Banking, Treasury and Regional expansion.

She handled back and front office roles at International Merchant Bank after which she moved to Chartered Bank as a pioneer member of staff to set up the Treasury Division and subsequently moved to the Credit and Marketing Sector. She later joined United Bank for Africa (UBA) where she rose to the position of Executive Director Wealth Management and was responsible for Treasury and Correspondent Banking/Multilateral Agency business and UBA subsidiaries (Asset Management, Trustees and Pension Custody).
She graduated with a B.Sc. (Hons) Degree in Economics from The University of Lagos and a Master of Management from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University Illinois USA.

She joined the Board of UAC of Nigeria PLC as an Independent Non-Executive Director with effect from 1st August, 2019.

Bolaji Odunsi

INDEPENDENT NON-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
APPOINTED DECEMBER 2018

Mr Odunsi, a financier, has over 25 years of international investment experience in a variety of industry sectors, including manufacturing, security, oil and gas and distribution. He has significant board level experience in Europe and the US, with focus on implementing transformational change encompassing systems and controls, team enhancement, financial and regulatory reporting and business analysis to drive value creation.

He was a co-founder of Stirling Square Capital Partners, a leading mid-market European private equity firm and a partner in Compass Partners and BC Partners. Before joining BC Partners, he worked as a member of the M&A team at Enskilda Securities in London. His prior experiences include stints at Touche Ross & Co and the engineering consultancy firm of Mott, Hay & Anderson.

Ayomipo Wey

GROUP GENERAL COUNSEL / COMPANY SECRETARY

Ayomipo Wey is an experienced governance practitioner and Board advisor across multiple disciplines with over sixteen (16) years’ cognate experience spanning legal, company secretarial, compliance, corporate governance, M&A, corporate actions and financing. She is thorough and versatile and has an uncommon drive for results, completion, and excellence.

Ayomipo is currently the Company Secretary/Group General Counsel (“GGC”) of UAC of Nigeria PLC (“UACN”). As GGC, she has ultimate responsibility for all aspects of UACN Group’s strategic legal direction and operations, comprising companies in the Packaged Foods and Beverages, Quick Service Restaurants, Paints, Animal Feeds and other Edibles, Logistics and Real Estate sectors.

Prior to her current position, she served as Company Secretary of UAC Foods Limited (a wholly owned subsidiary of UACN. She was also the Company Secretary/General Counsel of Chemical and Allied Products Plc (“CAP PLC”), a subsidiary of UACN from September 2019 to July 2023. Concurrently with being the Company Secretary/General Counsel of CAP PLC, Ayomipo served as the Company Secretary/Legal Adviser of Portland Paints and Products Nigeria PLC (“Portland Paints”) and drove the legal aspect of the merger between Portland Paints and CAP PLC which became effective in July 2021 with CAP PLC emerging as the enlarged entity.

Ayomipo was the Assistant Group General Counsel of United Capital PLC from June 2015 to August 2019 and had her formative legal years in the prestigious firm of Banwo & Ighodalo where she spent nearly a decade gathering extensive and invaluable knowledge and experience in the legal aspects of corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructurings, corporate governance and company secretarial practice.

Ayomipo holds a Bachelor of Laws (LLB), was called to the Nigerian bar in 2008 and obtained a Master of Laws (LLM) (with distinction) from Queen Mary, University of London in 2011. Ayomipo is a Member of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators (UK) and the Nigerian Bar Association.

Tunji Rabiu

GROUP INTERNAL AUDITOR

Tunji is a seasoned Chartered Professional Accountant with over 20 years experience in Internal Audit, Risk Management, and Financial and Operation audits. He has international internal audit experience, proficient in control frameworks such as COSO, OSFI and SOX and is knowledgeable in GAAP, IFRS, PSAB, IIA’s professional standards in auditing and testing of COBIT.

He has held leadership roles at Re-Move the Limit Inc as Principal Consultant, conducting governance and audit projects. At Forte Oil Plc, he served as General Manager Business Operations and Chief Internal Auditor. He also held key positions at Acorn Petroleum Plc and Virgin Nigeria Airways. Additionally, Tunji worked as a pioneer Business Process Consultant for the Convention of Business Integrity (CBi), an anti-corruption not for profit organisation. He managed the Internal Audit Department at Frigoglass Industries in a co-sourced arrangement with PwC. Tunji started his career in the Internal Audit Department of Nigerian Bottling Company (Coca-Cola).

He is a Fellow of Institute of Chartered Accountant of Nigeria (ICAN); a Fellow of Institute of Credit Management – Nigeria; an Associate Member of Association of Certified Chartered Accountants (ACCA) UK and Certified Professional Accountant (CPA) in Ontario, Canada. He is also an Associate Member of Certified Supply Chain Professional (CSCP), APICS Canada; Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria; Certified Information System Auditor (CISA) – ISACA US and Certified Risk and Information System Control (CRISC) – ISACA US.

He holds a B.sc Honours degree in Applied Accounting from Oxford Brookes University, United Kingdom, and a Higher National Diploma Accountancy (Upper credit) from Ibadan Polytechnic, Nigeria.

Queenette Durosinmi-Etti

CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER

Queenette is a seasoned operations executive with a diverse background that spans both the legal sector and financial services. She is currently the Chief Operating Officer at UAC of Nigeria Plc and is responsible for boosting efficiency through strategic planning, HR management, process optimisation, risk management and technology governance.

Prior to joining UAC, Queenette was an Executive Director at Goldman Sachs Inc. in London where she led cost cutting initiatives and ‘new market entry’ projects in the Global Markets Division. She initially joined Goldman Sachs as an associate in the Consumer and Wealth Management Division and helped to build and launch the firm’s first digital consumer bank in the UK.

Queenette’s journey in the financial services sector began at Lloyds Banking Group. During her time at Lloyds, she gained experience in various functions including sales, digital transformation, and operational risk management. Queenette has been called to the Nigerian Bar and spent the early years of her career as a corporate lawyer at Udo Udoma & Belo Osagie where she advised on local debt and equity capital market transactions, mergers, acquisitions, and general corporate and commercial matters.

Queenette possesses over a decade of professional experience in both Nigeria and the UK and holds a Law Degree from King’s College London and an MBA from London Business School.

Abosede Ogundiyun

HEAD OF TALENT STRATEGY

Abosede is a passionate Human Resource professional with multi-national experience in the Human Resources (HR) in the fast-moving consumer goods industry.

Prior to joining UAC of Nigeria PLC, Abosede’s career started off with 3TF, an indigenous payroll services provider thereafter, Promasidor Nigeria Limited then Beiersdorf Nivea, the multinational skin care giant where she was responsible for the HR function of the factory.

Abosede joined UAC of Nigeria PLC in April 2020 where she has held led in various capacities including leading the HR team at Portland Paints & Products PLC, Senior Vice President HR in the Corporate Head Office and more recently General Manager HR in UAC Foods Limited where she led the team to achieve the prestigious Great Place to Work Award.

Abosede holds a B.Sc Degree in Biochemistry from the University of Lagos, an MBA from Lagos Business School and is a member of several HR organizations including the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria (CIPM) and Society Of Human Resource Management Institute (SHRM)