<\/p>\n
African Collaborations Group (ACG) (www.ACGafrica.com<\/a>), the leading strategic project origination and collaboration platform focused on the industrialisation of sport in Africa through the origination of bankable sport and entertainment district ecosystems, today announced the appointment of Abiola (Abi) Ijasanmi to its Advisory Board.<\/p>\n Ms Ijasanmi is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of African Sports Investor (ASI), an advisory and investment platform focused on building investment-ready sports organisations, with women\u2019s football a major focus. She was recently appointed as an Independent Non-Executive Director of Charlton Athletic Women\u2019s Football Club.<\/p>\n Ms Ijasanmi previously served as Chief Operating Officer of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) from 2022 to 2024, the first woman to hold a C-suite position in the organisation\u2019s history. At CAF, she was entrusted with driving the operational governance reforms under CAF President Dr Patrice Motsepe\u2019s vision to make African football globally competitive and commercially sustainable, with her remit spanning governance, strategy, commercial development, compliance, and operational delivery across the organisation\u2019s 54 member associations.<\/p>\n A barrister and member of the Honourable Society of Lincoln\u2019s Inn, Ms Ijasanmi holds a Master\u2019s in International Commercial Law and brings extensive international experience in governance reform, compliance, and corporate affairs. Prior to CAF, she held senior management and operations roles in the regulated airport and luxury travel sector, working across London, Paris, New York, and Ghana with global brands including American Express and Visa. Earlier in her career, she was one of only two female sports agents in Europe, specialising in the placement of professional basketball players, where she identified and developed a dedicated division for women\u2019s player representation.<\/p>\n Her appointment to the ACG Advisory Board brings a unique combination of expertise directly relevant to the origination of sport and entertainment district ecosystems across Africa: deep operational knowledge of African football governance at the continental level, practical experience in making sports organisations investment-ready, a proven commitment to women\u2019s inclusion in sport leadership, and an understanding of how governance, compliance, and institutional standards must be embedded from the earliest stages of project development.<\/p>\n \u201cAbi 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\u2019s understanding of what makes a sports organisation, or a sports infrastructure project, credible to institutional capital,\u201d said Nicolas Pompigne-Mognard (www.Pompigne-Mognard.com<\/a>), Founder and Executive Chairman of ACG. \u201cHer work at CAF on governance reform, her focus on making sport commercially sustainable, and her commitment to women\u2019s leadership are directly aligned with what ACG is building. The fact that she has now founded African Sports Investor, a platform dedicated to making sports organisations investment-ready, tells you that she sees exactly the same gap ACG was created to fill.\u201d<\/p>\n The Advisory Board provides strategic guidance as ACG originates and structures large-scale sport and entertainment district projects across the continent, aligning governments, development finance institutions (DFIs), investors, sport bodies and infrastructure partners to support the development of financially sustainable, mixed-use district ecosystems.<\/p>\n Africa\u2019s sport economy is projected to reach USD 20 billion by 2035, yet the continent continues to lack the integrated district ecosystems required to support large-scale development. ACG addresses this gap by originating bankable sport and entertainment district projects, moving beyond single-venue development models towards mixed-use, revenue-generating and financially sustainable district ecosystems.<\/p>\n Through its collaborative model, ACG convenes governments, PPP authorities and regulators, development finance institutions, private investors, developers, designers and engineers, legal and transaction advisors, operators, sport federations and leagues, event promoters, media and broadcast partners, academic institutions and host communities, creating structured pathways from concept to feasibility, bankability and delivery.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n