August 5, 2025
Rachel Moré-Oshodi is helping build Africa’s future one power line, road, and broadband connection at a time.
According to an Aug. 2 interview with Business Insider Africa, growing up between continents, Rachel Moré-Oshodi saw two versions of the world. In Europe, water ran freely, lights stayed on, and schools were well-funded. In Nigeria, she encountered a different reality—one shaped by infrastructure gaps and inequity.
“It created a kind of guilt in me,” she said. “I saw what I had, and what others didn’t. And I couldn’t unsee it.”
That early awareness became the compass guiding her successful career. Now the CEO of ARM-Harith Infrastructure Investments, Moré-Oshodi has led more than $7 billion in projects across energy, transport, and digital sectors.
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Before returning to Nigeria in 2012, she held key roles at institutions like the Inter-American Development Bank and the International Finance Corporation. Her time at the IDB in Washington, D.C., offered a vital lesson.
“It was an eye-opener,” Moré-Oshodi said in an interview with Business Insider Africa. “I saw how intentional, well-structured capital could truly change outcomes. That exposure made it clear to me that Africa deserved no less.”
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Among her most personal and challenging projects was the Azura-Edo Independent Power Project, Nigeria’s first privately financed power initiative post-sector reforms. The 450-megawatt plant took eight years to bring to life.
“We had to align Nigeria regulators, local pension funds, and financiers from Sweden, the UK, France, and Germany,” she explained. “We had to align all of that to get the deal across the line.”
Still, one of her proudest innovations may be how she’s changed the game for African pension funds. Historically wary of long-term, illiquid investments, these funds are now beginning to embrace infrastructure, thanks to new financial models Moré-Oshodi helped design.
“The idea was simple: give pension funds a way to earn returns during the construction phase, not just years later,” she said.
It’s a model built on local understanding, global innovation, and trust.
As a woman leading in a male-dominated space, Moré-Oshodi is acutely aware of the challenges — especially in sectors like energy and infrastructure, where women’s leadership remains the exception.
“Cement. Steel. Finance. These are industries where women are more often absent than represented,” she said. “The question isn’t whether African women deserve to be at the table. The question is why we’re still asking that.”
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Moré-Oshodi has been honored by Forbes Africa, GQ South Africa, and Fast Company. But more than accolades, she wants to change outcomes. “Infrastructure shapes everything,” she said. “Who better to help shape it than the people most impacted by its failures?”
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