Thought Leader: Peter Onguka

Peter Onguka (he/him/his) is Head of Lending, Africa at Root Capital and an expert in the field of finance, with a specific focus on empowering traditionally underserved and underbanked populations. He has been a featured speaker at several high-profile conferences, including the African Fine Coffees Association Conference, where he spoke on a panel discussing sustainable financing for the coffee sector.

At Root Capital—a nonprofit that invests in small and growing agricultural enterprises to transform rural communities—Peter oversees lending and financial product innovation across sub-Saharan Africa. Over the course of his career, Peter has honed his expertise in financial services tailored to businesses that can’t access loans from traditional commercial banks. His wealth of experience extends from his early days in microfinance to his tenure at a Kenyan bank catering to small- and medium-sized enterprises.

Peter joined Root Capital in 2010 as a Senior Monitoring Officer and worked his way up to the Head of Lending, Africa. He received both his Bachelor of Arts and his M.B.A from the University of Nairobi. He also holds a Certificate in Agriculture Finance from the Kenya School of Monetary Studies, and a diploma in Agribusiness and Post-Harvest Management from the Galilee International Management Institute in Israel.