Sir Benjamin Wilcox - Chairman of the Board of Directors
Sir Wilcox obtained his BSc Business Administration (Cum Laude) and MBA Finance degrees at the University of Minnesota, USA where he won the Exxon outstanding student award in Finance. He is a seasoned technocrat, accomplished entrepreneur and financial consultant with a wealth of experience spanning over 36 years. His professional career started with a brief stint as a Research/Teaching Assistant with the University of Minnesota after which he joined Bourroughs Corporation, Ford Motor Company, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Sir Wilcox is an experienced Management Consultant with diverse business interests and serves as non executive director on the board of several companies in Nigeria. He is a knight of the Order of Saint Christopher and a Justice of Peace (JP) of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Mr. Olumide Bajomo - Managing Director / Chief Executive
Olumide has over 23 years experience spanning technology, payment and financial service industries working with leading national and international organizations, including two of the largest banks in Africa, where he provided leadership and executed strategies for the development of e-business, e-banking and e-payment. He was until recently the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of ATM Consortium Limited (ATMC), the pioneer IAD in Nigeria. Prior to his stint at ATMC, and as Deputy General Manager with Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (Ecobank Group), he served in various capacities: as Head of Transaction Bank Service & Delivery, he was responsible for platforms, infrastructure building and operations to support the fast growing business across 28+ countries in Africa. He also served as Head Transaction Banking at Ecobank Nigeria where he held both business and operational responsibilities. Prior to this, he served as Assistant General Manager and Divisional Head for Electronic Banking with United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA Group).
Mutual Benefits Assurance Plc
Mutual Benefits Assurance Plc is today a leading financial, wealth protection company in Nigeria, a premier provider of Life Insurance, Auto Insurance, Health Insurance, Special Risks, and Investment products and services with assets under management in excess of USD 2 million as of December 31, 2009. The company also operates through the following subsidiaries: Mutual Benefits Life Assurance Limited, Mutual Benefits Assets Management Limited, Mutual Homes and Properties Limited, Charks Investment Limited, Mutual Micro Finance Bank Limited, Mutual Model Transport Limited along with international operations in Liberia and Cameroun within the West Africa region. The company commenced operation in 1995 and became a public liability company in 2001 followed by successful listing on the Nigerian Stock Exchange in 2002.
Dr. Oladiran Fawibe - Non Executive Director
Dr. Fawibe is a graduate of the University of Ibadan where he obtained a PhD Degree in Petroleum Economics. He has over 40 years experience in the energy sector and has worked at various times at the Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER), University of Ibadan, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) where he held senior management positions. He is currently on the board on several organisations including Engineering Practice and Resource Centre (EPRC) where he serves as Vice Chairman of the Governing Board, Trans Nationwide Express PLC where he serves as Chairman and International Energy Services Limited (IESL) where he serves as Chairman/CEO.
Mr. Adelowo Adesola - Non Executive Director
Mr. Adesola has over 30 years of experience in the Information Technology industry in Nigeria with the last 11 years spent as Managing Director of Inlaks Computers Limited prior to his voluntary retirement after over 24 years of service in December 2011 to apply his entrepreneurial skills and passion across other industry sectors of the Nigerian economy. During his tenure as the Managing Director of Inlaks, he significantly grew the revenue and profitability of the company through product innovation and geographical expansion across both Francophone and Anglophone countries within the West Africa region. Mr. Adesola currently sits on the board of director of several companies including FSS Gases Limited; Oxygen Broadband Networks Limited; Remax Realtors Limited; Goshen Marble Limited and Ladla International Limited.He graduated from the University of Ibadan in 1981 and holds a 1998 MBA degree awarded by IESE, Spain in collaboration with Lagos Business School (LBS).
Mr. John Obaro - Non Executive Director
Mr. Obaro is the Managing Director / Chief Executive of SystemSpecs Limited, Nigeria’s leading software house. A distinguished IT management career, he is today regarded as one of the most respected personalities in the Nigerian IT industry. A man of high integrity, great ideas and a clear demand for excellence, the early part of his career was spent at Leventis Group of Companies moving on to United Bank of Africa (UBA) and International Merchant Bank (IMB) then an affiliate of the First National Bank of Chicago, where he led the team that achieved Nigeria’s first installation of an international core banking software package on a network of 5 cities. He took a plunge into entrepreneurship with the founding of SystemSpecs in 1992.
He has a degree in computer Science from the Ahmadu Bello University (1979), and an MBA from the University of Lagos (1981). He’s an alumnus of the prestigious Lagos Business School (LBS) Chief Executive Programme and has extensive international exposures to business management. Recognised for his leading role in the development of IT and particularly software, he has served on sub-committees of the National IT Policy Development Team, the Ministerial Committee for Software Development in Nigeria as well as the CBN Committee on National Payment System Vision 2020.
A patron of the Nigeria Computer Science Students Association (NACOSS) which has presence in over fifty tertiary institutions in Nigeria, Mr. Obaro is a fellow of Computer Professionals (Registration Council) of Nigeria (CPN) the highest industry practice regulatory body and is the 1st Vice President of Institute of Software Practitioner's of Nigeria (ISPON
Mr. Ayorinde Adebola - Executive Director
Ayo is a Technology, E-Banking, E-Payments and E-Business Specialist with a track record of achievements spanning over 15 years of building and transformation experience with three of the top regional banks in Africa; Access Bank Plc, United Bank for Africa Plc and Ecobank Nigeria Plc / Ecobank Transnational Incorporated. He has a strong record of success in creating robust IT architectures and infrastructures, with proven ability to bring the benefit of IT to solve business issues while managing costs and risk.
He has championed various business process analysis/design, application selection and implementation. He has conceptualized and implemented novel initiatives in Cash Management, Payment Card & Device Management in addition to indigenous and international MasterCard/Visa services and integrated stand-alone payment Card and ATM/PoS platforms which supported business across multiple countries into a single robust Global Switching & Card Management Infrastructure to offer innovative services and drive business across 28+ countries.
He is a graduate of Computer Engineering from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife and has attended several local and international Senior Management, Project Management, Process Improvement and IT Corporate Governance trainings from prestigious institutions around the world. He joined AVANAGE in August 2012 as Executive Director, Operations & Technology following a stint at ATM Consortium Limited where he served as Group Lead Operations Management for the IAD.