With the emergence of Bayo Adelabu as the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), it is safe to say Nigeria’s banking ecosystem is having some of its players in the country’s political system.
It is not hard to know that the infusion of economic knowledge in governance by key players in the industry would not totally slide off.
Adelabu who’s the Former Executive Director, First Bank and Former Deputy Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has on Sunday, September 30, 2018, emerged as the preferred governorship candidate of the APC.
Members of the ruling APC, Oyo State elected Adelabu as the gubernatorial candidate of the party ahead of the 2019 general elections in a primary election held at Lekan Salami Stadium, Adamasingba, Ibadan, the state capital.
What you should know about Adelabu’s professional career
Adelabu started his career with PriceWaterhouse (now PricewaterhouseCoopers), an international firm of Chartered Accountants and Management Consultants. During his seven years with the firm, he led and managed various audit and consultancy engagements for large banks and non-bank financial institutions within and outside the shores of Nigeria.
Adelabu was on secondment to the CBN for one year in 1999 when he led the finance team on the CBN re-engineering and corporate renewal project tagged ‘Project EAGLES’. He left the firm in 2000 as an Audit Manager and Senior Consultant to join First Atlantic Bank as the Financial Controller and Group Head of Risk Management and Controls. He was later promoted to Chief Inspector of the Bank in 2002 and Group Head of National Public Sector Business in 2003.
Adelabu moved to Standard Chartered Bank as the West African Regional Head of Finance and Strategy (Consumer Banking Business) with dual offices in Lagos and Accra. He was there till 2009 from where he became an Executive Director/Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Nigeria’s largest bank, First Bank of Nigeria Plc. (FBN) at the age of 39.
Adebayo was appointed by former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan in February 2014 as Deputy Governor, Operations of the CBN.
He is the grandson of late Ibadan Politician, Adegoke Adelabu, popularly called Penkelemess during his lifetime, who served as the Chairman, Board of Directors of the Nigeria InterBank Settlement Systems (NIBBS) and has chaired the board of Financial Institution Training Centre (FITC).
Adelabu is also a serving member of the Board of Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS), Nigeria Security Printing and Minting Company (NSPMC), the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) and the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk-Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL).
