What we do
Ọnà Strategies works across three interconnected contexts. The tools, frameworks, and underlying expertise are the same. What changes is who the client is and what they need to satisfy.
Certification, compliance, supply chain due diligence, and human rights frameworks for growth-stage companies
Growth-stage companies face environmental, social and governance (ESG) pressure from multiple directions. Large companies are bound by regulations like the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), and they cascade these ESG requirements down to their smaller suppliers and partners as commercial conditions of doing business. Commodity-specific regulations like the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) can apply directly to smaller operators placing certain commodities on the EU market. Investors conducting ESG diligence at Series A or B, and certification requirements like B Corp and Fair Trade, add further pressure. Ọnà Strategies builds the infrastructure that meets these requirements in a way that reflects how the company actually operates.
For impact funds: ESG governance infrastructure for DFI-backed portfolio companies in Sub-Saharan Africa and emerging markets
Development finance institution (DFI)-backed impact funds require their portfolio companies to meet environmental and social management system (ESMS) standards aligned with IFC Performance Standards and the guidelines of their specific DFI investors, including KfW Sustainability Guidelines where applicable. Portfolio companies, typically early to growth-stage businesses in agri-food, aquaculture, energy, and circular economy, often have the operational traction but lack the governance infrastructure to satisfy these requirements, produce credible impact reporting, or attract follow-on capital.
Ọnà Strategies works with individual portfolio companies to build systems that satisfy fund ESMS requirements and are designed to be maintained by the company independently after the engagement ends. This work can be commissioned through the fund's technical assistance (TA) facility where one exists. For funds with exposure in Nigeria or Anglophone West Africa, Ọnà Strategies brings direct on-the-ground experience in West African aquaculture and agricultural value chains, and native language access that most ESG advisors cannot offer.
For impact funds: working with GP teams on portfolio ESG gap analysis, ESMS design, and investee reporting systems
Impact fund general partner (GP) teams need to understand where their portfolio companies have ESG and supply chain governance gaps before their LP investors surface them. They need ESMS frameworks that are proportionate to what portfolio companies can implement, and reporting structures that produce credible impact data without overwhelming investee management teams.
Ọnà Strategies works directly with fund GP teams, understanding the portfolio's ESG baseline, identifying priority gaps, and designing governance and reporting systems that function across companies at different stages of development and in different operating environments.