Azuka Okeke
CEO, Africa Resource Centre for Excellence in Supply Chain Management
DAY 2, LABORATORY WORKSHOP: Challenges and mitigations to supply chain management issues and no response in clinical trials in Sub-Saharan Africa
Azuka is the Chief Executive Officer of ARC_ESM. She oversees supply chain transformation projects in Nigeria and has also supported other African countries in strengthening their health systems. She is best known for her expertise in engaging governments and development partners, supporting them to prioritize and invest in health supply chain programmes in Africa.
Her work has improved financial investments by the Federal and State governments in Nigeria and co-investments worth over $8,000,000 (Eight Million US Dollars) from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, The Global Fund, USAID and GAVI.
Azuka is well known for the role she plays as a Thought Leader and Advisor to the National Ministries of Health in Africa. Beyond government engagements, she has successfully facilitated Public-Private Partnerships for innovative health financing through platforms such as the World Economic Forum and recently ARC.
Currently, she has pioneered the set-up of a first-of-its-kind Membership Platform for the private sector in Nigeria through which private corporates and individual experts have contributed about $900,000 (Nine Hundred Thousand US Dollars) to public health programmes within the past five years.
Her ambition is to provide governments and partners with a pragmatic framework for sustainability and country ownership for supply chain delivery. Her most recent aspiration is in advocating for human capital development in Africa and championing a collaboration with MIT Boston, Zaragoza Logistics Centre, Spain, and six local universities in Nigeria to set up a Pan-African Centre of Excellence for Supply Chain Management.
