Abiola Ijasanmi Joins African Collaborations Group Advisory Board

Abiola Ijasanmi has joined the Advisory Board of the African Collaborations Group (ACG), bringing her extensive background in continental sports governance, investment structuring, and executive leadership to the organization. ACG announced the appointment as part of its ongoing strategy to originate bankable sports and entertainment districts across Africa.

Abiola Ijasanmi Joins ACG Advisory Board

• New Role: Ijasanmi joins the Advisory Board of the African Collaborations Group (ACG) to guide the origination of sports and entertainment districts.
• Prior Experience: She served as Chief Operating Officer of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) from 2022 to 2024 and founded African Sports Investor (ASI).
• Broader Impact: Her appointment reinforces institutional standards and commercial viability within the African sports economy, which is projected to reach $20 billion by 2035.

Continental Governance and Strategic Expansion at ACG

As the founder and managing director of African Sports Investor (ASI), Ijasanmi focuses on structuring sports organizations to receive institutional capital, with a particular emphasis on women’s football. She was recently appointed Independent Non-Executive Director of the Charlton Athletic Women’s Football Club. Her career includes serving as the Chief Operating Officer of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) from 2022 to 2024. During her tenure at CAF, she became the first woman to hold a general management executive position in the organization’s history, driving operational governance reforms under the vision of CAF President Dr. Patrice Motsepe.

Nicolas Pompigne-Mognard, Founder and Executive Chairman of ACG, emphasized the strategic value of her appointment. “Abi brings something that very few people in the world can bring to our Advisory Board: direct, hands-on experience of running African football at the continental level, combined with an investor’s understanding of what makes a sports organization, or a sports infrastructure project, credible in the eyes of institutional capital,” he stated.

Role / Organization	Key Focus Area	Timeline
African Collaborations Group (ACG)	Advisory Board member for sports and entertainment districts
African Sports Investor (ASI)	Founder and Managing Director focusing on investment-ready sports	Recent
Confederation of African Football (CAF)	Chief Operating Officer (COO) driving governance and commercial viability	2022–2024
Charlton Athletic Women’s FC	Independent Non-Executive Director	Recent

Ijasanmi Brings Legal and Corporate Experience to CAF

Before her executive tenure at CAF, Ijasanmi worked in the regulated luxury travel and airport sectors in London, Paris, New York, and Ghana with global brands including American Express and Visa. As a barrister and member of the Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn holding a Master’s degree in International Commercial Law, her background covers regulatory reform, corporate compliance, and legal affairs. Earlier in her career, she operated as one of two sports agents in Europe specializing in professional basketball player placement.

Her experience addresses a key challenge identified by ACG at ACGafrica.com: while the African sports economy is projected to scale up to $20 billion by 2035, the continent lacks integrated district ecosystems required for large-scale, sustainable development. ACG addresses this gap by moving beyond single-infrastructure models to originate mixed-use, revenue-generating districts.

Future Developments in African Sports Industrialization

The ACG Advisory Board shapes the strategic direction for large-scale sports and entertainment district projects across the continent. By bringing together governments, public-private partnership authorities, development finance institutions, private investors, developers, architects, and sports bodies, ACG structures projects from concept to feasibility, bancability, and final delivery.

Ijasanmi’s incorporation into the advisory framework ensures that operational governance, compliance, and institutional standards are embedded into the earliest phases of project development, aligning sporting organizations with the structural requirements demanded by global financial markets.