Tolulope Babajide is a driven development professional with experience in gender programming, financial inclusion, management consulting, rural development, and strategic partnerships.

She has extensive experience in developing partnerships for social impact that are rooted in core business practices; identifying barriers to financial services uptake by women and vulnerable groups and developing marketing systems solutions to address those barriers.

Before joining FSD Network, she worked at Sahel Consulting Agriculture and Nutrition Ltd as the Financial Inclusion and Gender Manager, where she provided strategic direction for the organization’s gender initiatives. She also led the financial inclusion component of the Advancing Local Dairy Development in Nigeria (ALDDN) program, which focuses on developing context-specific innovative financial products to improve the livelihoods of female dairy farmers in Northern Nigeria.

She previously served as the Partnerships and Innovations Advisor for the World Bank-funded Nigeria for Women Project.

Tolulope holds a bachelor’s degree in English and Literary Studies and an MBA (specialization in Sustainability) from Nexford University.

She is skilled at public speaking and writing on topical issues such as gender and development, women’s economic empowerment, and forming strategic partnerships to achieve impact. She volunteers as a mentor to young women in development and is a member of the Philanthropy Circuit Executive Committee. She also serves as the Board Chair of ‘A Girl Project.’