Audu Grema
Dr. Audu Grema, MBE, is a Senior Regional Adviser, Agriculture, for Nigeria and West Africa, at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation since June, 2016 and he is based in the Abuja. In his current role, he leads the foundations policy dialogue with key development policy leaders in the West Africa region, assisting in shaping inclusive agricultural transformation and promoting pan African platforms for agricultural growth, such African Development Bank’s Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT), which is pan African in scope, and undertaking creative program development with Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), our downstream partner in Agriculture, working in 11 African countries.
Prior to this role, Dr. Audu was also a Regional Manager for Nigeria and West Africa for Palladium Group (formerly GRM International). In his 6 years with Palladium, he set up the Palladium West Africa Office, and also developed the Palladium Program portfolio from one project to 6 programs totaling about £180m in contract value, through effective business development, and strategic relationship building. As a result of these efforts, Palladium, within the Nigerian development space, is reputable as a key management service company for donors such as DFID/FCDO.
In 2006, Dr. Audu was the Head of DFID’s Northern Nigerian office in Kano, and was lauded for raising the level of development dialogue with state governors and emirs in 13 northern states. He provided strategic inputs and management of the design and installation of a suite of programs with combined value of about £300m over 5 years. He was State Coordinator for Jigawa State, home to 3.3m people, where he managed a range of programs cutting across sectors including livelihoods and a program aimed at improving service delivery to the poor. He had supervisory and management oversight over key agriculture and rural development programs specifically farmer extension support, livelihoods and water governance, market development programs in agribusiness value chains, subregional cross border trade policy and commodity value chains in West Africa.
In addition to academic degrees in agriculture, Dr. Audu received specialists training in various fields of development management as well as market development, such as the famous Market Development course from the Springfield Centre in the M4P approaches in Glasgow in July 2011. His key skills are in Representational duties, Project Design and Management at Project Adviser and directorial levels. Business Development and Policy Dialogue with key stakeholders are key capes as well. A career highlight for Audu was when he was honoured with an MBE by Her Majesty, the Queen, in 2016, in recognition of his contribution to development outcomes in Nigeria, while working for DFID/FCDO in Nigeria.