Edit Content

About Us

Friends of Nigeria is a dedicated community that bridges the gap between businesses in France and lucrative opportunities in Nigeria, fostering cultural exchange, promoting development, and nurturing enduring friendships.

Contact Us

MENU

Edit Content

About Us

Friends of Nigeria is a dedicated community that bridges the gap between businesses in France and lucrative opportunities in Nigeria, fostering cultural exchange, promoting development, and nurturing enduring friendships.

Contact Us

About Friends of Nigeria

What We Do

Who We Are?

Friends of Nigeria (FON) is a non-profit involved in facilitating the access of Nigerian professionals in Europe to business and professional development opportunities and promoting Nigeria’s attractiveness to European companies and investors.

Our Flagship events

Spotlight Nigeria

The Spotlight Nigeria Conference and Exhibition is an annual event that offers a platform to private sector companies and investors from France and Nigeria to collaborate, exchange ideas, and partner together for mutual benefits. The event offers an opportunity for participants to build business contacts, sign deals, build strategies, and increase knowledge about opportunities presently existing for investment across Nigeria, across Key sectors of the economy, and key state governments. The event focuses annually on key sectors of the Nigerian economy and attracts participation from the public and private sectors of Nigeria to meet with counterparts from France and Europe at large

NIDA

The Nigerians in Diaspora Awards is a first-of-its-kind event celebrating trailblazing Nigerians re-writing the narrative of what it means to be a Nigerian abroad. The event aims to foster growth and innovation within the Nigerian diaspora community and celebrates the remarkable achievements of the Nigerian diaspora in Europe, inspiring the next generation of Nigerians and its diaspora to excel. Over a prestigious gathering, the event offers a night of celebration featuring exciting and inspiring segments including awards, music, comic relief, performances & entertainment, providing an opportunity for participants to expand their network, as it welcomes professionals across the diaspora with a focus on Europe.

Explore our activities

What We Do

Diaspora engagement

We engage the Nigerian diaspora community on developmental projects, events, and initiatives. We partner with several diaspora organisations, NGOs, and international bodies to foster collaboration, leverage the skills and resources of the diaspora, and advocate for a stronger inclusion of the diaspora in nation-building.

Social Support and Integration

An analysis of several research and publications reveals that among the top challenges facing international students, the following three are the most overarching: language barriers, coping with cultural differences, and lack of a support network upon arrival. Our social integration and support program helps new and returning students network, learn, and acquire the information necessary to maximise their stay in Europe.

Investment promotion

We organise business breakfast meetings and coordinate bespoke trade missions which provide an opportunity for participating companies and individuals to understand the Nigerian business environment better and access the right partnerships and opportunities. We also match-make French and European member companies with the right advisory and market research necessary to introduce their products and services into the Nigerian market.

Training and professional development

We organise training and capacity development sessions for our members. These trainings are focused on business and professional subjects and targeted at our members. We also organise in-house training for French and European companies who seek to better understand investing in Nigeria, its business culture, and the Nigerian business environment.

Bi-lateral engagements

We actively participate, on federal levels, in events and meetings that reinforce bi-lateral engagements between Europe and Nigeria. We also recognize the value and impact of foreign partnership and investment on a state level in Nigeria and organise exclusive investment business missions to Paris, France for Nigerian State Governments to meet and pitch investment opportunities within their states to selected French stakeholders (public and private).

Meet the Friends of Nigeria Team

Management Team

John is currently Managing Director of Growth Energy, with offices and subsidiaries in France, Kenya, Nigeria, and Burundi

John Okoro

President

Abiodun Dominic Odunuga is an international development consultant.

Abiodun Odunuga

Vice President

Nkechi NWOSU is a HR professional with over a decade of solid experience in multiple HR disciplines

Nkechi Nwosu

Director of Media & Communications

FONEN

FONEN is open to all European companies who are interested in the Nigerian market.

FONPRO

FONPRO is a membership platform for Nigerian professionals in France. It is the largest network of Nigerian professionals in France

News and Publications

Partners & Sponsors

John Okoro

president

John is an expert in international business and project development with several years of experience across 30 Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and 40 Countries Globally, spanning across key sectors of the economy, with a particular focus on sustainable infrastructure projects and enterprises.

John is currently Managing Director of Growth Energy, with offices and subsidiaries in France, Kenya, Nigeria, and Burundi. Growth Energy develops, engineers, and deploys renewable energy power plans and electric mobility charging stations in selected markets in Africa. John is also a member of the Executive Committee of Growth Supply Group, the parent company of Growth Energy. Before Co-Founding Growth Energy, John was Commercial Director (Sub-Saharan Africa) for CMR Group’s Solar Division until December 2022, and directly reporting to the Group CEO of CMR Group. In this role, John directly managed business and project development teams located in France, Tunisia, Nigeria and Zanzibar.

Before his career in clean energy and infrastructure, John worked as a Project Manager in the public and private sectors in Nigeria including at Nigeria’s Presidency between 2012 and 2013 during which John was part of a project team in charge of deploying a public-private partnership project geared towards job creation amongst Nigerian youths. John also co-founded several social impact initiatives including the “mentor-me” initiative which won a State award for excellence in Nigeria in 2013.

John is an international key-note speaker and panelist on topics related to clean energy, innovation, and Africa. John has delivered various presentations and key notes at more than 20 international conferences across 10 Countries. John is also a non-executive board member of a number of companies and non-profit organizations in Africa and Europe, spanning across Engineering, Technology, and human capital development.

John holds a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Covenant University, Nigeria and a Master Degree in Project Management and Business Development from Skema Business School, France. John is also an alumnus of the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management’s Climate and Renewable Energy Finance Program. John is a member of the Project Management Institute and holds the global Project Management Professional (PMP) certification since 2013.

John is Co-Founder and President of Friends of Nigeria Europe. In this role John oversees administration, and works closely with his colleagues and in collaboration with leaders of other African Diaspora organizations in strengthening the capacity of the African diaspora in Europe and in promoting the attractiveness of the African continent to foreign investors and the African Diaspora.

John has a flair for sports, music and arts. He plays football, badminton, ping pong, tennis and was former member of the IBB Golf and Country Club Abuja. John also plays the Piano, Drums, and Bass Guitar. He writes poems, does interior decoration, and is fascinated by nature. John’s most relished hobby, however, is spending ample time with his Wife and children which his peripatetic schedule does occasionally deprive him of.

Abiodun Odunuga

vice president

Abiodun Dominic Odunuga is an international development consultant.

Having acquired over 10 years of experience in the field of sustainability, entrepreneurship and International development, Abiodun has developed and worked on projects with organizations such as the World Bank, European Union, United Nations (UN), Africa Development Bank (AfDB), and The Commonwealth across Africa and Europe. He has presented various papers relating to entrepreneurship, social innovation and sustainability at different levels such as the International Conference on Sustainable Development (ICSD) in New York, United States as well as the in Rome Italy.

He has consulted for various government agencies in Nigeria and France on economic initiatives in Agriculture, Digital Technology and Industry. Abiodun has also worked with various Sates Governments in Nigeria and the Nigeria Governors Forum with respect to development projects and attracting foreign investments.

He holds a Masters in Development Practice (MDP) degree from Sciences Po, Paris.

Abiodun is also the project manager for the Nigeria-France Tech Initiative (NFTI) recently launched by the Embassy of Nigeria, Paris amidst stakeholders such as the French Development Agency (AFD) and the Nigeria Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) to support the tech ecosystem between France and Nigeria.

He is a recipient of many international awards such as the Tocqueville Active Citizens Award for Co-creation and Community Impact in France as well as the United States of America Partnership award for Economic Empowerment by the United States Consulate, Lagos, Nigeria.

Based in Paris, he brings his wealth of experience in training, project management, fundraising and business development to consult for various International organizations focusing on Africa as it relates to investment opportunities, supporting start-ups, and empowering small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs).

Abiodun is also a lecturer on Leadership, Soft Skills and Entrepreneurship with leading institutions having students across Africa and Europe. He is a frequent global conference speaker and sits on the board of many organizations.

As the Co-Founder and Vice-President of Friends of Nigeria, Abiodun serves in the Executive role of Director of Partnerships for the organization.

When he’s not working, you can catch him mentoring young people, discovering new cultures, volunteering for noble causes or watching movies.

Nkechi Nwosu

director of media & communications

Nkechi Nwosu is a HR professional with over a decade of solid experience in multiple HR disciplines including strategic planning, leadership, people operations & employer branding.

Over the course of her career, she has developed a wealth of experience, working in both multinational companies and start-ups, and collaborating in global environments across Europe, Africa, South America and Asia in multiple sectors: oil & gas, agriculture, healthcare, IT, and tourism.

As a co-founder of Level Hire, she oversees the conception and implementation of the organization’s strategic business plan and operational framework.

Nkechi is happy to serve on the Friends of Nigeria Europe (FON) board facilitating business collaboration between French and European companies and startups with their Nigerian counterparts, and vice-versa

She is a lover of arts in all its forms and expression: music, dance, fine arts, performing arts, and has channels this creativity in consulting on high-level events that bring cultures together such as African food and French wine tasting events.

As a social networker passionate about creating platforms and supporting stages that promote inter-cultural exchanges, networking and social / community development, she’s been part of the management team of various networking platforms across France. In Nice, she was part of the organizing team for NTA, Nice – a prominent social group in the French Riviera bringing together hundreds of expats and locals through various social events. This love had in the past led her to create the defunct “ECOWAS Young Professionals” association in 2015 at Grenoble, whose objective was to create a platform where professional Franco-phone and Anglo-phone West Africans could collaborate and share value.

Nkechi holds a Master’s Degree in International Human Resources Management and Organizational Development from Grenoble Ecole de Management, France, and a Bachelor’s Degree in French Language from Abia State University, Nigeria. She speaks English, French, Igbo, a bit of Yoruba, and Pidgin English.