about me

Author, Speaker & Leader

Ada Onanuga is an Executive Director, speaker and author whose work sits at the intersection of leadership, authenticity, faith, and human development.

With over 14 years of experience across African Corporate & Investment Banking, Real Estate Financing, and Oil & Gas, Ada has closed landmark and multi-billion dollar transactions while building a reputation for strategic thinking, depth, and people-centered leadership. She currently serves as Executive Director at ACUOP, where she leads strategic growth, partnerships, and financing initiatives focused on premium real estate and structured lending solutions.

Prior to this role, Ada served as Vice President, Debt Financing Solutions at Rand Merchant Bank, where she structured landmark financing transactions clients across broader African and multiple sectors, most notably, the first Sustainability-Linked Bond issued by a Development Finance Institution globally (a transaction that received multiple international awards).

Beyond finance, Ada is known for her work exploring identity, voice, emotional healing, courage, and the cost of becoming. She is the author of Awaken the Voice Within and the co-convener of Coffee & Conversations, a curated gathering creating honest conversations around faith, leadership, identity, emotional wellbeing, purpose, and the realities of navigating modern life with authenticity and courage.

Through speaking, writing, and curated experiences, Ada helps individuals and organizations navigate the tension between external success and internal alignment — challenging people to lead, work, build, and live from a place of wholeness rather than performance.

Her work and speaking have been featured across corporate institutions, leadership forums, universities, podcasts, and public conversations, including platforms hosted by GE Vernova, the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), University of Lagos Finance Symposium, AccelerateHer Africa, and other cross-sector leadership communities.

Ada is a CFA Charterholder and AFM-accredited finance professional. She lives in Lagos, Nigeria, with her husband and their two daughters.