Dr Ikechi Kelechi AGBUGBA
PhD, MBA, MSc, BSc, FHEA
Sector: Inclusive Movement Lead
Company: Eating Better
Dr. Ikechi Agbugba is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA), a certified and globally recognized teacher and learning qualification of the United Kingdom Professional Standards Framework. He is a proactive and profound agricultural science economist with wide experience in virtually every aspect of agriculture, spanning from agricultural education, agribusiness management, to food and agricultural systems development, entrepreneurship development, technology in agriculture, among other areas.
Dr. Ikechi earned an MBA degree in Business Management from the Cavalla International University USA. He is the pioneer and advocator of the ‘‘Brain Re-Engineering Concept and Reimagination,” which is a strategy for unlocking the entrepreneurial potentialities of the younger generation in line with agriculture. The Brain Re-engineering Initiative is already registered in the United States Library of Congress Copyrights Laws, Washington DC in November 2023.
He has twice consulted for the United Nations under the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) Connecting Diaspora for Development Project focused on train-the-trainers programmes spearheaded by the Hague Office in the Netherlands. He successfully delivered his assignments at the Food Crop Production Technology Transfer Station in South-South Nigeria; and the National Horticultural Research Institute (NIHORT), South-West Nigeria in 2021 and 2023, respectively.
He was invited as the main speaker in the ‘New Faces for Farming’ programme packaged for youngsters in the UK at the Writtle University College (now Anglia Ruskin University), Chelmsford Essex, England in 2023. Since 2003, Dr. Ikechi has been carrying out research on micro and macroeconomics as it relates to agribusiness development in Nigeria and sub-Sahara Africa, as well as other global south regions.
After defending his PhD (Agribusiness and Marketing of Food and Agricultural Products), he proceeded to the University of Fort Hare, South Africa, for his Postdoctoral Research Fellowship on a Smallholder Collaborative Study between Agricultural Research Council (ARC) and the University of Fort Hare, under Prof A. Obi’s project. During this postdoc period, Dr. Ikechi was also part and parcel of the NUFFIC Project of which three South African institutions (Universities of Limpopo, Venda, and Fort Hare) benefitted from.
Presently, he is among the few persons that won the UKRI Grant on ‘‘Engaging ethnically diverse communities to develop future talent in UK environmental science through water resource management (EMBRACE Enviro).’’ In addition, Dr. Ikechi has gained experience as an external examiner with the Development Studies Department, University of Fort Hare and has been examining PhD students since 2018.
Aside that, he has served as external examiner for MSc and PhD students of Agricultural Economics at the University of Pretoria; University of KwaZulu Natal (UKZN); University of Limpopo; University of Mpumalanga; and Prince Abubakar Audu University (a.k.a. Kogi State University), Nigeria. Since 2022, he has been receiving invitations to evaluate/assess the research outputs of professors of Agricultural Economics as a National Research Foundation (NRF) Scholar.
Aside his roles at Rivers State University where he is an Associate Professor of Agricultural Marketing, Dr. Ikechi has gleaned experiences as Honorary Associate Professor at the University of Birmingham, England; Lecturer at York St John University, England; Faculty Member at School of Pan African Thought, London; Adjunct Graduate Faculty at Tennessee State University (TSU); Visiting Professor at Rome Business School Nigerian Campus (RBSN); Honorary Adjunct Professor at Lovely Professional University (LPU), Punjab, India; Consultant on Agribusiness and Agricultural Economics at Nigeria Stored Products Research Institute (a Parastatal under the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Nigerian Government), among others.
Interestingly, he earned an award of excellence from the Pan African Organisation for Peace and Conflict Resolution (OPPRC) in February 2025, owing to his transitional works on ‘Pioneering the Re-engineering Agenda for Agricultural Development and Productive Networking for Diaspora Engagement.’ In 2022, he received the Global Mentor of Change and Global Emerging Leaders’ Award from the Global Council for the Promotion of International Trade (GCPIT).
Dr. Ikechi is a licensed roving ambassador and member of the royal chamber under the jurisdiction of the Prime Minister, State of the African Diaspora (SOAD). He engages with international networking volunteer organizations across Africa, Europe, Asia, North America and other regions of the world as either senior advisor or director on how to attract grants and other funding solutions to African communities.
Since he joined RSU in 2015, Dr. Ikechi Agbugba has been instrumental in creating visibility in many ways. He is the facilitator and lead of the RSU-University of Rwanda collaborations with focus on spearheading formidable and productive projects/programmes between UR’s College of Agriculture, Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine (CAAVM) and Faculty of Agriculture RSU. Dr. Ikechi has facilitated some collaboration with Faculty of Agriculture Delta Agriculturists Journal RSU and Africa Organisation of Technology in Agriculture/ International Conference on Business Models in Agriculture (IBMA)/University of Rwanda.
This agreement is intended to create international visibility for Delta Agriculturists Journal which will metamorphose in generating income for the journal. More so, he is a Co-founder of the Africa Organisation of Technology in Agriculture (AOTA), a Rwanda-based initiative poised to transform Africa’s agriculture sector through targeted approaches for unlocking her food and agricultural potentials with the help of technology and business models for her key players. Jointly, AOTA, University of Rwanda, and Rwanda Ministry of Agriculture have twice delivered Int’l Conference on Business Models in Agriculture (IBMA).
In the past, Dr. Ikechi had served as Senior Advisor and Member of Administrative Board, Association of African Future Leaders’ (AAFL). Also, Dr. Ikechi had served as Technical Adviser to NutriCare, Malawi—an initiative developing strong farmers’ links and networks with the agriculture sector in specific regions thereby identifying farmer/farming needs, as well as building networks, partnerships, and relevant opportunities in line with the vision of actualizing food and nutrition secure communities through empowering women to increase availability of affordable nutritious foods.
Dr. Ikechi is an accredited member of the International Trade Council (ITC). He has also garnered wide experiences and affiliations in the academia and research domains as Advisory Board Member at Saudi Education & Technology Collective Alliance (SETCA); and Advisory Board Member at Food Security Consortium USA. As an active advocate member of the European Technology Chamber (EUTECH), he participates in different workstreams as either expert, consultant or speaker.
He was nominated as Board Member of the Food, Farming and Fisheries Alliance Committee by EUTECH, focusing on possible and easy solutions on how to deploy business ideas, as well as relevant technology solutions to targeted African communities, developing interregional technology cooperation between Europe and Africa. According to Dr. Ikechi, “moves to industrialize the agriculture sector must be vastly encouraged in sub-Sahara African countries especially in the advent of technology and era of the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0).”
Dr. Ikechi features as Board Member at African Council for Small Businesses and Entrepreneurship (ACOSBE) and Uganda National Entrepreneurship Development Institute 2 (UNEDI). He is also an Advisory Board Member with the African Continental Chamber for Commerce and Industry (ACCCI); Director, Research & Development/International Coordinator for Africa Agriculture Agenda (AAA); Senior Advisor with Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN) programme for Capacity Development (GODAN-P4CD), Nairobi Kenya; Senior Advisor, African Youth Diaspora Organization (AYDO); Senior Advisor, AgriEn (an agribusiness and agri-energy initiative focused on accelerating development and delivery of innovative and sustainable interventions in food security), among other initiatives.
Also, Dr. Ikechi is the Technical Adviser to NutriCare, Malawi. Dr. Ikechi is working assiduously on developing some strategic notes for conflict resolution, disaster management, climate change mitigation, health care management, among other issues. He is a selected academia/researcher stakeholder in the Feed-the-Future initiative of the USAID Global Food Security Strategy Whole System Workshop and has led plenary sessions on Food Security and Agribusiness, especially at the International Food and Agribusiness Management Association (IFAMA) World Congress which held at St. Paul Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
To his credit, Dr. Ikechi has published over 80 articles in reputable journals and conference proceedings, book chapters and issues. Interestingly, Dr. Ikechi facilitated the Rivers State Nigeria Chapter of the Michigan State University Research Workshop with World Bank, USAID, FAO and Worldfish on the impact of COVID-19 on farmers’ incomes and food systems in urban and rural communities of Nigeria.
Moreover, Dr. Ikechi is the recipient of the excellence award ‘Agro-Economist of the Year’ in the 2017 Conference of the Pan African Agricultural Journalists (PAAJ).
