Aisha Yakubu Bako is the MD- CEO of OnyxIAL, an indigene of Kano State and a Gender, Public policy, and Market Development Specialist with 17 years combined experience in project management, gender mainstreaming and private sector development. Aisha left the LINKS programme in March 2022 as the Deputy Team and Investment Lead. She worked in various capacities in FCDO (former DfID) funded programmes such as – ENABLE, GEMS 1, Propcom-Maikarfi, GEMS3, GEMS4 and was the most recent consultant for Business Development – Northern Nigeria in the IFC. During her time as Coordinator of AVENIR-NEPAD, Aisha assisted the team leader on Access and Equity – A portfolio for girls’ education and people with special needs during reforms at the Federal Ministry of Education in 2006. In 2007 she was Advisor for women in business to the London Business Development Agency. Two years later, she moved to Oceanic Bank where she headed the PSG (Public Sector Group) marketing team in her branch until 2010 when she joined Heinrich Boll Stiftung (hbs) as the Project Manager – Gender Democracy Rights. In 2013, Aisha began to provide technical support to ENABLE/DfID in building the capacity of the Leather and Allied products association before moving to GEMS3/DfID in 2015 as the Investment Promotion Coordinator where she was part of the lead team to develop NICPS for NIPC and training of the DAWN commission and then facilitated the set up of KADIPA and successfully facilitated over $350m worth investments at exit, supported the state in its application to achieve USD350million Program-for-Results financing from the World Bank based on work done. After GEMS3, Aisha moved to GEMS4 where she supported an investment focused closeout with a special lens on the rice sector. Early 2018, Aisha supported Kaduna state in developing the FRILIA (Framework for Responsible and Inclusive Land Intensive Agricultural Investment) for Kaduna State and most recently, carried out a mapping of the North East to identify investment sectors for IFC Nigeria, the World Bank Finance, Competitiveness and Innovation (FCI) Global Practice and DFID/ UKAIDvia Palladium. Aisha is an alumnus of Maastricht School of Management, Netherlands Ahmadu Bello University and Nigerian Defence Academy with a degree in Agric Engineering, Masters in Financial Economics and Diploma in Business Dynamics. She is a member of the Chartered Institute of Banking, a recipient of theAmbassador for Peace award and the former Director of Memberships - World Association of NGOs (WANGO).