BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Ikechi Agbugba is a United Nations Consultant under the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) Connecting Diaspora for Development Project focused on train-the-trainers programme spearheaded by the Hague Office in the Netherlands. He successfully delivered his first and second assignments with IOM of the UN as Diaspora Expert Leader at the Food Crop Production Technology Transfer Station (FCPTTS) and a brief one at National Horticultural Research Institute (NIHORT) both in Nigeria. He is an agricultural economist with wide experiences in marketing, agribusiness management, entrepreneurship development and related areas. He has wide experiences as Lecturer, York St John University England; Researcher and Development Officer with the Reform Corporation International (RCI) London; Visiting Professor at Rome Business School; Guest Lecturer at University of Birmingham (UOB); Mentor on New Faces for Farming at Writtle University College Chelmsford Essex England;  Senior Lecturer at Rivers State University (RSU), among others. Since 2003, he has been carrying-out researches on economics, agribusiness and marketing of agricultural commodities. He earned PhD in Business and Marketing of Agricultural Products and gained Postdoctoral Research Experience on a Smallholder Development on a collaborative study between Agricultural Research Council (ARC) and University of Fort Hare, as well as a NUFFIC Project which three South African Universities (Limpopo, Venda and Fort Hare Universities) benefitted. He is also an external examiner with Development Studies Department, University of Fort Hare and has been examining PhD students since 2018. Interestingly,  he recently received awards as Global Mentor of Change and Global Emerging Leaders’ Award 2022 from the Global Council for the Promotion of International Trade (GCPIT), which was featured in the State News from the Prime Minister of the State of the African Diaspora (SOAD).

Dr Ikechi is a licensed roving ambassador and member of the royal chamber under the jurisdiction of the Prime Minister of the SOAD. He engages with international networking volunteer organizations across Africa, Europe, Asia, North America and other regions of the world as either senior advisor or director. As an active advocate member of the European Technology Chamber (EUTECH), he participates in different workstreams as either expert, consultant or speaker. He was nominated as Board Member of the Food, Farming and Fisheries Alliance Committee by EUTECH focusing on possible and easy solutions how to deploy business ideas, as well as relevant technology solutions to targeted African communities, developing interregional technology cooperation between Europe and Africa. According to Dr Ikechi, “moves to industrialize the agriculture sector must be vastly encouraged especially in this era of advent of technology and the fourth industrial revolution (4IR).” To mention a few, he is a co-founder and Senior Advisor of the Africa Organisation of Technology in Agriculture (AOTA) and Africa Agriculture Agenda (AAA). Together with the AOTA and University of Rwanda, they delivered their first annual event captioned International Conference on Business Models in Agriculture (IBMA) at the Kigali Convention Center in March 2023 with focus on new and recent business trends and opportunities for smallholder farmers and food and agriculture/agribusiness value-chain enablers. Dr Ikechi features as Board Member at African Council for Small Businesses and Entrepreneurship (ACOSBE) and Uganda National Entrepreneurship Development Institute (UNEDI). He is also an Advisory Board Member with the African Continental Chamber for Commerce and Industry (ACCCI); Director, Research & Development/International Coordinator for Africa Agriculture Agenda (AAA); Senior Advisor with Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN) Nairobi Kenya; Senior Advisor, African Youth Diaspora Organization (AYDO); Senior Advisor, AgriEn (an agribusiness and agri energy initiative focused on accelerating development and delivery of innovative and sustainable interventions in food security, among other initiatives. Also, Dr. Ikechi is the Technical Adviser to NutriCare, Malawi (an initiative developing strong farmers’ links and networks with the agriculture sector in specific regions thereby identifying farmer/farming needs, as well as building networks, partnerships and relevant opportunities in line with the vision of actualizing food and nutrition secure communities through empowering women to increase availability of affordable nutritious foods. He has also gained experienced as Professor of Agribusiness Management at Cavalla International University of America. It is important to note that Dr. Ikechi is the originator and advocator of the ‘’Brain Re-Engineering Concept and Reimagination: Strategy for Entrepreneurship Development and Youth Engagement in Agriculture.’’ At the moment, he is working assiduously on developing some strategic notes for conflict resolution, disaster management, climate change mitigation, health care management, among other issues. He is a selected academia/researcher stakeholder in the Feed-the-Future initiative of the USAID Global Food Security Strategy Whole-System Workshop and has led plenary sessions on Food Security and Agribusiness especially at International Food and Agribusiness Management Association (IFAMA) World Congress which held at St Paul Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. Dr Ikechi facilitated the Rivers State Nigeria Chapter of the Michigan State University Research Workshop with World Bank, USAID, FAO and Worldfish on the impact of COVID-19 on farmers’ incomes and food systems in urban and rural communities of Nigeria. Moreover, Dr Ikechi is the recipient of the excellence award ‘Agro-Economist of the Year’ in the 2017 Conference of the Pan African Agricultural Journalists (PAAJ).