Banker, economist, and author all apply to today’s man crush Dr Jekwu Ozoemene. And for over twenty years, he has applied his wide-ranging talents to diverse roles in non-profit, investment, development finance, SME banking, and consulting. Jekwu is currently the Managing Director/CEO of HIV Trust Fund of Nigeria, a noteworthy vehicle that allows the private sector to play its part in securing the health of the country’s citizens.
The HIV Trust Fund is a US$150 million investment towards HIV programmes in the country, and is jointly promoted by the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) and the Nigeria Business Coalition against AIDS (NiBUCAA). Jekwu’s pedigree in business and finance makes it a no-brainer that he was given the mandate to steer the organisation. His career has seen him in charge of Access Bank Plc’s Business Banking Division across Nigeria’s South-South as the Group Head, and as Managing Director/CEO of Access Bank Zambia Limited and Deputy Managing Director of Access Bank Rwanda Limited. He was also a Senior Investment Officer in the Africa Department of the Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO); and was the Managing Director/CEO of Lyceum Alliance Limited, a financial advisory and management consulting firm, among several other roles in his decades-long career.
Jekwu also lends his expertise to corporate boards and government committees. He is a non-executive director at Business Partners International East Africa LLC, an SME-focused risk finance company, where he serves as the Chairman of the Board Audit and Risk Committee. He is also an independent director on the board of Tigray Coffee Company Limited Nigeria; and a member of Board of Trustees of Jalada Africa Trust, a Nairobi-based collective promoting writers and artists of African origin. Jekwu was a member of the 2019 Imo State Transition Technical Committee and played a key role in its Finance and Funding Sub-Committee. He is a member of the Financial Market and Financial Inclusion Policy Commission of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG). Jekwu has been particularly active in supporting the housing and urban development needs of Nigerians. He has advised the Federal Housing Authority on financial schemes to provide affordable housing for all, and was appointed by the Federal Ministry of Land, Housing and Urban Development as a resource person on title and mortgage insurance.
Jekwu holds a BA in English from the University of Lagos; an MBA in Finance from the University of Leicester; a Chartered Banker MBA from Bangor University; and a DBA in Banking and Finance from Binary University College Malaysia. He has attended executive programmes at INSEAD Singapore and the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, as well as several non-executive director programmes at the FMO Academy in The Hague. He is an Honorary Senior Member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (HCIB); an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (ACIB); a Member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers Scotland (MCIBS); and was recently inducted as a Fellow of the Institute of Credit Administration of Nigeria.
Jekwu has published numerous articles on finance and economic policy. He was a speaker at TEDxPortHarcourt 2019, and is a co-licensee of TEDxOguiRoad. Based on his doctoral research on Africa-To-Africa internationalization and his extensive experience doing business across Africa, Jekwu facilitates sessions for Modular Executive MBA and MBA students of the Lagos Business School (LBS), Pan-Atlantic University.
We at Pride Magazine Nigeria applaud the finance expertise of Dr Jekwu Ozoemene and his contributions towards development in Africa.