Olanike Olugboji
Nigeria Program Lead
Olanike Olugboji is an award-winning conservationist and women’s empowerment advocate. Olanike became a founding member of WEA in 2006, where she was a part of co-designing the global organization dedicated to empowering women environmental leaders around the world. In 2008, Olanike participated in WEA’s first Women and Water Training in Kenya. Equipped with technical skills, entrepreneurship training, and seed funding, she went on to launch her own NGO called Women’s Initiative for Sustainable Environment (WISE).
Since 2013, WISE has reached 120,000 women & girls and sold 60,000 clean cookstoves — in part through WISE and WEA's clean cookstoves initiative, which trains women to launch clean cookstoves businesses.
In addition to directing WISE, Olanike is WEA’s Nigeria Project Lead. She is also a correspondent for World Pulse, where she speaks on critical issues like climate change. Her writing has been featured in Time Magazine, and she is involved in a number of leadership and global initiatives, like the Nigerian Alliance for Clean Cookstoves. Olanike’s work has created refuge for Nigerian women, as well as an opportunity for women leaders to create a livelihood and secure a future for their children and the earth.