Dr. Ayoade Alakija is included in Africa Health 20 because she understands how influence operates in modern global health: through institutions, diplomacy, agenda-setting, and the ability to push neglected issues into rooms where decisions are actually made. As Board Chair of FIND, she sits close to one of the most important organizations in the diagnostics space.
In 2025, her relevance sharpened further when Nigeria appointed her Ministerial Global Envoy on Antimicrobial Resistance ahead of the 2026 global ministerial conference on AMR. That combination of institutional platform, diplomatic access, and public health advocacy makes her one of the figures helping shape the African health agenda in real time.
Influence areas: Diagnostics; health equity; AMR advocacy; global health diplomacy.
