The Heineken Africa Foundation has announced, on March 28, the appointment of Bilikiss Adebiyi-Abiola as Chair of the Board of Trustees, as of 1 January 2022, taking over an organization that is committed to building sustainable communities since 2007.
Bilikiss Adebiyi-Abiola succeeds Guus Lubsen who, since January 2014, successfully scaled up and accelerated the Foundation’s activities. In 2020 and 2021, the Foundation executed the largest grant-making program in its history, committing €5 million euro to support water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) projects in 8 African countries as part of its COVID-19 Response Program.
In 2020, this enabled more than 30 million people to be reached with crucial life-saving hygiene messages. More than 1,000 handwashing facilities were installed in critical locations, including public marketplaces, giving 1.5 million people the ability to wash their hands. The Foundation is currently finishing the second phase of WASH programs in 8 countries.
Bilikiss Adebiyi-Abiola said : “It’s an honour to lead an organization that shows such a strong commitment to positively impact communities in Africa. Living in Nigeria I see the great opportunities that can be unlocked for people when we work with local communities to find sustainable solutions to everyday challenges. I am delighted to see the great work the Foundation has done in the last two years with the Covid-19 Response Program. This shows the ambition and I am looking forward to work with my fellow Trustees to see how the Foundation can increase its impact even more in the years to come.”
Suzanne Giele, General Manager of the HEINEKEN Africa Foundation: “The appointment of Bilikiss Adebiyi-Abiola is an exciting moment in the history of the foundation as she brings to the HEINEKEN Africa Foundation an impressive combination of entrepreneurial and public sector leadership in Africa. Guus Lubsen was instrumental in taking the foundation to new heights and leaves the organization in great hands for the future.”
Distinguished track record in waste management
Born on 14th July, 1982 and raised in Nigeria, Bilikiss Adebiyi-Abiola, it’s explained, brings to her position as Chair a distinguished track record in waste management and recycling in the developing world, with 14 years of experience in social entrepreneurship, public sector leadership and software development. She is currently director-general for the Lagos State Records and Archives Bureau.
She bagged her MBA at the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and as a student she was a Legatum Fellow at MIT’s Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship and Vice President of the MIT Sloan Africa Business Club. Additionally, she holds an MSc. in Computer Science from Vanderbilt University, and a BSc. in Computer Science from Fisk University. She is a Carroll Wilson Fellow, an Echoing Green Fellow and a 2013 recipient of the Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards.
After a successful corporate career she returned to Lagos and founded WeCyclers, a social enterprise for waste collection and recycling serving densely populated urban neighbourhoods. Bilikiss Abiola as served as CEO for 5 years. She then transitioned to the public sector . From 2017 to 2019, Bilikiss Abiola was the General Manager of the Lagos State Parks and Gardens Agency (LASPARK) before her current role to the Lagos State Records and Archives Bureau (LASRAB) as the Director-General, since the 25th of September, 2019 to ensure the continuous maintenance of historic, modern and credible information that meet the needs and interest of the State.
In addition to her role at LASRAB, Bilikiss Abiola is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF), which was established by the Lagos State Government to provide financial support to residents of Lagos State, for jobs, wealth creation and to tackle unemployment.
Active public speaker
Bilikiss Abiola is also an active public speaker, reaching audiences in Nigeria and beyond at events such as Thinking School Africa 2015, Founders Conference 2016, the Youth Entrepreneurship Summit and Expo (YES) Nigeria 2016 and Women in Business Conference 2016. She was recognized as one of the 2016 Quartz Africa Innovators, identified as one of Africa’s Top 5 Entrepreneurs in the Waste Recycling Business by Smallstarter, named as one of the 2016 Ventures Africa 42 African Innovators to Watch, and honored as one of 20 African Women with Powerful and Inspiring Voices by Applause Africa. She also published a patent during her time as a Software Engineer with IBM.
The HEINEKEN Africa Foundation (HAF) was established in 2007 with the goal of building sustainable communities in the sub-Saharan African countries where HEINEKEN operates. Over the years, the Foundation has committed €16 million to 136 projects in 10 countries and has built strong expertise in the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and other health-related projects. The HEINEKEN Africa Foundation, a separate legal entity from HEINEKEN, is a non-profit organization. It is funded by an endowment from HEINEKEN and regular contributions. It is governed by the Board of Directors, which bases its decisions on the recommendations of the Advisory Board, composed mainly of external experts.
