Innovation Policy · Development Finance · Africa

Building the systems that power Africa's innovation economy.

Ife Adebayo is an innovation policy leader and development finance specialist. He currently coordinates iDICE — Nigeria's $617 million investment in digital and creative enterprises — after eight years driving innovation policy from the Presidency.

Ife Adebayo portrait-image
$617M
iDICE Programme, co-financed by AfDB, AFD & IsDB
500,000+
Young Nigerians trained and deployed under Npower
1
Landmark law — the Nigeria Startup Act, co-designed and enacted
3
Continents of professional experience: Africa & Europe, engagements worldwide
Currently

Three fronts, one mission

Government, capital, and continental institutions — the three levers that decide whether Africa's innovators get to build at scale.

Leading iDICE

National Coordinator of the Federal Government's flagship $617M investment in digital and creative enterprises, delivered through the Bank of Industry with three multilateral co-financiers.

Explore the programme →

Convening the continent

Executive Director-designate of the Africa Innovation Council — a continental think tank established in partnership with Princeton University's Africa World Initiative.

About the Council →

Sharing the story

Latest milestone: the appointment of Kuramo Capital as Fund Manager of the DICE Fund of Funds — a first-of-its-kind vehicle for Nigerian venture capital, signed June 2026.

Speeches & media →
Africa's next decade will be defined not by the technology we consume, but by the institutions we build to create it.
Ife Adebayo
Read my vision
Latest insight

From the writing desk

Development Finance
Development Finance

Inside a $617M programme: what development finance looks like from the implementation seat

Securing the money is half the story. Here is what actually happens between board approval and a founder's bank account.

Draft · Coming soon
Development Finance
Innovation Policy

What the Nigeria Startup Act taught me about how laws actually get made

Co-designing a landmark law from inside government — and the ecosystem lessons no policy textbook covers.

Draft · Coming soon
research infrastructure
Continental Agenda

Why Africa needs its own research infrastructure

The case for continental institutions that turn African research into African industries.

Draft · Coming soon