1. Education and Personal Life

Oge Funlola Modie is an Igbo from Ogwashi-Uku, Delta State, Nigeria. She was born at the University College Hospital, Ibadan. Her names shows a link to both the Western and Eastern part of Nigeria, her paternal grandmother was Yoruba. Her parents were professionals; her father retired as the Associate Dean of the School of Medicine at the University of Nigeria Nsukka, and her mother a retired Chief Nursing Administrator at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital Enugu.^[1]

Oge Modie grew up in the civil service town of Enugu on the university campus, where she fostered her early years of primary education at University Primary School UNEC, Enugu and her secondary education at Federal Government Girls College, Owerri, Imo State. She studied Economics at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State. During her undergraduate years she was active in student groups, joining the AIESEC community, campaigning and winning the Vice President post for Marketing and being paramount in fund raising for several conferences (Legon, Ghana and Zaria, Nigeria). She also was part of the group that formed Policy Analysis and Research Group (PARG, a group that held tutorials for fellow students in the Economics department).

After about eight years of working, she studied for a Masters in Business Administration at the Cranfield University School of Management United Kingdom. She graduated in 2007. Modie also has various certificates in Project Management, Language, a training certificate in Conflict Resolution and has contributed to a range of publications.

She participates in various organisations that are focused on empowering women and children.^[2]

2. Career

Modie's corporate finance career started in 1999 with Agusto & Company Limited, Nigeria’s first indigenous credit rating company. Agusto & Co Limited then partnered its consulting arm with IBFC Consulting to become Alliance Consulting where she worked six years as an Associate consultant building up her skills in West African Mergers & Acquisition Market with a focus on the Nigerian and Ghanaian financial services industry (pre-consolidation era).

She was also part of the teaching faculty at the IBFC AGUSTO training school where she taught Treasury Arithmetic and Credit analysis to Nigerian bankers. She left in September 2003 to join the HEIRS Alliance team, a portfolio company founded by Tony Elumelu.^[3]

She was the Manager, Corporate Venturing and Incubation at Heirs Alliance where she was part of the core team that managed the financial services portfolio (over US$ 5bn) of the Standard Trust Bank group of companies now United Bank For Africa UBA group. She was the project lead on various M & A projects across the West African region. ^[3]

During her time at Heirs Alliance, Modie's key highlight was the planning, execution and management of a one-year US$4 million project covering acquisition, restructuring and management of a financial services company in the insurance sector. Successful planning led to the birth of one of top insurance companies in Nigeria.^[4] In mid 2005, Heirs Alliance was dissolved temporarily and the management formed a new company called Nextzon Business Services.^[5]

At Nextzon, she was key in designing the Nextzon Business Incubator which warranted a grant from the World Bank MSME program.^[6]

On her return from business school, from 2008 to 2011, she was the Fund Director (West Africa) at Makeda Fund Managers LLC,^[7] a US$50million SME private equity start up fund focused on investing in women entrepreneurs across West Africa, the fund was run in partnership with Small Enterprises Assistance Fund (SEAF) based in Washington, D.C.

As a fund director, Modie generated interest in investing in women owned/managed SMEs across West Africa. She also provided technical assistance to these women-owned businesses, particularly those that support their journey by obtaining patient capital. She was responsible for fund marketing, relationship building & managing, deal sourcing and managing investor relationships^[8]

In 2009, she founded a company called Alternativ Managers that has partnered with the Ford Foundation, The Nigeria SME Agency (SMEDAN),^[9] LEAP Africa^[10] and Fate Foundation^[11] to build capacity in SMEs and stakeholders in the sector.

Modie joined NOIPolls Limited as the Chief Operating Officer in February 2012, became Managing Director and CEO as approved by the Board of Directors in August 2012^[12] until her appointment as a key support staff to the Minister of State of Petroleum Resources and Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in 2015 as the Chief of Staff.^[3]

3. Non-Profit Work

Modie has been deeply involved in various nonprofit organizations with a focus on microcredit, entrepreneurship, private sector development and gender empowerment. More specifically she has supported the following initiatives:

• King Solomon’s Fund: a faith-based initiative with a focus on micro enterprises, offering debt funding and management training to micro enterprises. This has now being converted to a microfinance Bank.^[13]
• FATE Foundation: she supported FATE’s Emerging Entrepreneur Program with the primary responsibility of providing consulting advice to start ups on any business issues/challenges faced.
• Ford Foundation: she served as a consultant for the West African Office, supporting projects that were focused on entrepreneurship, economic development and poverty alleviation.
• LEAP Africa: she worked alongside founder Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli at initial start up period.

She is the founder of a youth capacity building organization called Kairos Knowledge Centre, founder of First Born Foundation, and the writer of a weekly devotional called Wellspring of Life.^[14]

She has joined the board of Digital Media Development Initiative, a non-profit that has the vision to be the leading digital media brand improving the efficiency and productivity of Nigeria’s individuals and organizations by 2020.^[15]

4. Speaking Engagements

Modie has been a speaker at various events, including;

• IFC Women's Conference in Cairo^[16]
• Private Equity Conferences in Nigeria, by Henshaw Capital Partners; Speaker alongside Cherie Blair^[17]

^[18]

• IFC/Federal Ministry of Health Nigeria Healthcare summit^[19][20]
• Businessday Women Conference^[2]
• AIESEC, Abuja Chapter
• National Association of Economics Students, University of Abuja Chapter
• 7th Sustainability in the Extractive Industries (SITEI) Conference and Exhibition 2018^[21][22]

5. Board Seats

• Kairos Knowledge Centre
• First Born Foundation
• KSF Microfinance Bank
• Victorious Women