After multiple evaluations, the 2023 Ministerial Appointment List has been made public. Among President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s appointees is Adebayo Adekola Adelabu, appointed to head the Ministry of Power.
Adebayo Adelabu is a man with stars on his shoulders. Birthed into the Aderibigbe Adelabu of the Oke-Oluokun family on 28 September 1970 in the Kudeti Area in Ibadan, he has constantly been on prestigious spots.
He attended Lagelu Grammar School in Ibadan from 1982 to 1987 after attending Ibadan Municipal Government Primary School in Agodi from 1976 to 1982. Adelabu graduated with First Class Honors in Accounting from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. He holds fellowships from the Nigerian Institute of Chartered Accountants (ICAN), the Nigerian Chartered Institute of Bankers, and the Institute of Directors of Nigeria and the United Kingdom.
He began his professional career with PriceWaterhouse, a global organization of management consultants and chartered accountants now known as PricewaterhouseCoopers. During his seven years with the company, he directed and oversaw numerous audit and consulting engagements for sizable banks and non-bank financial entities inside and outside of Nigeria.
He managed the finance team on the CBN’s re-engineering and corporate renewal project known as “Project EAGLES” while he was on secondment to the Central Bank of Nigeria for a year in 1999. Adelabu joined First Atlantic Bank as the financial controller and group head of risk management and controls in 2000 after leaving the company as an audit manager and senior consultant. Later, in 2002, he was elevated to Group Head of the National Public Sector and Chief Inspector of the Bank.
With dual offices in Lagos and Accra, the new Minister of Power joined Standard Chartered Bank as the West African Regional Head of Finance and Strategy (Consumer Banking Business). He remained there until 2009, at which point, at the age of 39, he was appointed Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of First Bank of Nigeria Plc. (FBN), the country’s largest bank. Later, in February 2014, he was chosen by the former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan to serve as the CBN’s deputy governor for operations. In addition to this, he also ran for governor of Oyo State in 2019 on the APC ticket.
Currently serving as the head of the board of directors of the Nigeria InterBank Settlement Systems, Adelabu previously served as the board chair of the Financial Institutions Training Centre.
Along with serving on the boards of the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria, the Federal Inland Revenue Services, the Nigeria Security Printing and Minting Company, and the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk-Sharing System for Agricultural Lending, he is also a member of the Federal Inland Revenue Services’ Board of Directors.
Adelabu has also taken professional courses in various business schools, including Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Columbia, Kellogg’s, Euromoney, and the University of London.
While some Nigerians are confident in his abilities based on his portfolio, some are worried that he might not be fit to manage the Nigerian power sector with majorly financial expertise. These speculations will, however, be resolved with the outcomes of his tenure.