Domestic and Foreign Investors Must Collaborate to Fully Harness Nigeria’s Economic Potentials
His career trajectory and accomplishments in Development Banking and Public Service spanning over 28 years speak volume of his resilience, determination and penchant for continuous capacity building. Dr. Waheed Olagunju, who joined the Bank of Industry’s (BOI) precursor institution of the Nigerian Industrial Development Bank (NIDB) in 1990 as senior manager rose to the position of executive director, Business Development in 2012, when he became the first career staff to attain such a height. He was reassigned as executive director, Small and Medium Enterprises (ED,SME) in August 2014. Olagunju scored another first as the only career staff, who acted twice as managing director & chief executive officer of the bank between April and May 2014 as well as between February 2016 and May 2017 in addition to his responsibilities as ED, BD and ED,SME. Under his leadership of the SME Directorate between 2014 and 2018, the bank’s annual lending to SMEs rose phenomenally from the average annual lending of N1.8 billion in previous years to N28.3billion by 2018. In this interview with Raheem Akingbolu on his development banking career journey, Olagunju speaks about the various developments that led to the establishment of BOI in 2001 and in its transformation from a marginal national development finance institution (DFI) into an internationally rated AA organisation. As he retires at the age of 60 years after 28 years in the development banking environment, where he had considerable domestic and international exposure, he also opens up on his plans in retirement to deploy his vast experience, knowledge and expertise to offer advisory services to national and subnational governments, players in the private sector and civil society organisations across Africa as well as the international development community