Patrick Oketa . Managing Principal
Patrick Oketa is the founder of Aval Capital. Prior to that, he was a Partner at Pearl Capital Partners a fund manager focusing on investments in the Agribusiness value chain. He was the Chief Investment Officer of the African Agricultural Capital and worked for Actis where he was responsible for the administration of the $100 million Actis Agribusiness Fund. He also worked at the East African Development Bank in various capacities including project officer and infrastructure economist.
Patrick carries a wealth of experience in private equity including fund management and project financing gained from many years of working with projects and entrepreneurs across Africa. He has worked with various entrepreneurs and delivered practical value adding innovative solutions to both startup and established businesses over the last 10 years.
He holds an MBA and an MA in Banking and Finance, as well as a BA in Economics
Dennis Matanda . Partner
Before moving to the U.S. in 2007, Dennis had been an FM radio station pioneer, an information technology business development executive and had excelled during a 16-year career augmented with business remodeling and electronic payments.
He is credited with initiating and effectively managing Gifted by Nature, Uganda's international branding campaign and was one of 3 founding members of what was to become the Uganda Media Center.
He has consulted with the Africa Trade Insurance, a COMESA initiated export credit agency based in Nairobi, Kenya; with the PTA Re Insurance agency, ZEPRE; with the Coca Cola company in Mozambique and with Chevron Texaco in Uganda, helping launch Arrive Alive, Uganda's road safety campaign.
The soon-to-be Dr. Matanda is currently Head of Government Relations at Manchester Trade in Washington, DC, is editor of The Habari Network and holds post graduate qualifications in American Politics and Government, an Executive MBA, and International Relations degrees. He's concurrently working on second + third books.