Obiora is an experienced investor in the energy and infrastructure sectors in Africa having worked with GE, African Development Bank (AfDB), Mart Resources (Canadian E&P company) and Guaranty Trust Bank (GT Bank Plc). He has invested over US$4 billion and worked on small to large scale energy generation, transmission and distribution projects in a number of African countries.
He is currently the co-founder and Managing Partner at Blackaion Capital Management, an infrastructure advisory and project development company focused on small to medium scale opportunities across mid-stream gas processing and logistics, off-grid renewables and gas-fired power-generation, transmission and distribution, energy efficiency and infrastructure asset management services.
Prior to founding Blackaion Capital, Obiora led the Project Development & Investment activities for General Electric (GE) in Nigeria whilst supporting a number of key projects in SSA. He contributed to designing processes and building GE’s capability in a team managing about $20m in development capital deployed in projects across SSA which positioned GE as an important development partner for African energy projects.
Prior to GE, he worked at the African Development Bank (AfDB) as a Senior Investment Officer, with responsibility for originating, structuring and financing energy projects across Eastern and Southern Africa and built extensive contacts with governments, banks and developers. He represented AfDB at high level meetings and conferences including Board Meeting for the Pan-Africa Infrastructure Development Fund (PAIDF), one of the largest Infra Funds on the continent.
At AfDB, he was seconded to USAID’s Private Capital & Microenterprise Group to work on the design of the US Presidential initiative, Power Africa, launched by President Obama in 2013. Through the initiative, he helped mobilize $20m in commitments to the equity window of the Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA), a clean energy fund administered by AfDB.
Obiora holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth, an MSc in Energy Finance from the University of Dundee (CEPMLP) and a BA in Economics with Accounting & Finance from Oxford Brookes University.
