Obadiah Ngigi

I am a co-founder of F3 Life; an award-winning company which helps financial institutions incorporates climate risk into their agricultural lending decisions. The aim of the company is to help financial institutions and farmers to overcome challenges associated with climate change. I ran the successful pilots of F3 Life services in Kenya, where I was the CEO of Farmer’s Life East Africa Limited. I hold an MSc degree in Agricultural and Applied Economics having specialized in Environment and Natural Resource Economics and a BSc degree in Agricultural Economics from Egerton University, Kenya. I am currently pursuing a PhD degree in Agricultural Economics. I am a research fellow with World Agro forestry Centre (ICRAF), Nairobi and the United Nations University- Institute for Natural Resources in Africa (UNU-INRA), Ghana in the “Unleashing the Potential of African Rural Economies through Green Growth project” investigating the feasibility of a green credit facility as incentive for natural resource management in Kenya. I have been working on Ecosystem Services-related projects since 2008. I negotiated the Africa’s first ever watershed Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) in the Lake Naivasha basin in Kenya (the only fresh water lake in the Rift Valley) working for CARE and WWF. I have 9 years’ experience working with smallholder farmers mobilizing them to embrace soil and water conservation initiatives. I am passionate about nature and people and strategically positioned between the private sector, academia, NGO and research organizations, aiming to trigger systemic change through and among these institutions.