Yemi Adefisan, the Group Chief Executive of Cititrust Holdings Plc., an investment holding company, has proven through his achievements that success in life is no fluke. With a background that exposed him early in life to the virtues of humility, hard work and honesty, his exemplary rise on life’s ladder of success could not have been otherwise.
Resourceful and articulate, his career which spans over twenty years has exposed him to business operations across various economic sectors including banking, oil and gas, real estate, manufacturing and logistics.
Fondly called Yemi by his colleagues, he holds an MBA in Strategic Management from the University of Chichester where he graduated with a distinction, and Postgraduate degree in Management Science and Strategic Management from both Ladoke Akintola University, Ogbomosho and Metropolitan School of Business Management, UK.
Prior to his appointment as the Group Chief Executive of Cititrust Holdings in 2018, he had previously worked at Seven-up Bottling Company, Pacific Bank (now Unity Bank), Crystal Microfinance Bank, Skye Bank (now Polaris Bank) and EAIN Capital Group.
According to him, the Cititrust Group which has a presence in eleven African countries has been able to grow beyond the borders of Nigeria given its unique business approach which is a mix of brownfield and greenfield investments.
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He said, “We are passionate about Africa and our strategy has been a mix of organic and inorganic growth. For some businesses, we go in as greenfield investors once we realize the need to go into such businesses and our assessment shows that the environment in such countries is good for us. We also go in as brownfield investors for some businesses through acquisitions. This has helped us in our spread across Africa because it is a unique strategy in the global business space.”
Speaking further, he added that the company through her subsidiaries across Africa has the mandate to increase financial inclusion among Africans which is geared towards making an average African financially capable irrespective of status or income.
“We still have a long way to go in terms of financial inclusion and this is why our products are profiled to meet the needs of Africans, whether resident in Africa or in diaspora but that doesn’t mean we don’t do business with other people from other
parts of the world. Recent data in Nigeria shows that there are about 40 million Nigerians with BVN and we have a population which is close to 200 million. Also, there are about 120-130 million accounts owned by those 40 million, this simply implies that some of us operate at least two bank accounts.
“So what we are doing in this regard is to target our services to those in both rural and urban areas because there are people in urban areas who don’t have a bank account, and at Cititrust, we have given ourselves a target of contributing more than 20 percent to the financial inclusion growth in Nigeria. We plan to achieve this through agency banking and we are also coming with a product called ‘Credit Go Africa card’ which works with a mobile application and USSD codes, so you neither need a smartphone nor internet service to carry out financial transactions. We have already gone into partnership with a telecoms firm in other to make this work”, he informed.
A Fellow of Microfinance Association UK, National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria (Chartered) and Institute of Management Consultants. He is also a member of the Nigerian Institute of Management (Chartered), Institute of Directors (IOD) Nigeria, Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) and Honorary Senior Member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria.
To further widen his horizon, Adefisan has attended a number of executive management programmes at various institutions which includes the Metropolitan School of Business and Management, UK, IESE Business School Barcelona, Spain, Lagos Business School, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, USA, The Housing Finance, Canada, and Strathmore University School, Kenya.
A financial expert with a penchant for excellence, Adefisan explained that he draws the motivation to do more from his team members who have been very active in transforming the African financial space. This in turn has contributed to the growth of the company.
He revealed that as part of the company’s plans to expand its presence in Nigeria, Cititrust Holdings will soon be filing for a commercial banking license through one of its subsidiaries.
“We have adopted the transformational journey of going into the commercial banking space and by next year, we will be filing for a commercial banking license through one of our vehicles which is registered and licensed by the CBN. It is part of our plans to upscale our licenses within the next five years. Aside Nigeria, we are also filing for commercial banking license in Uganda and we have ongoing acquisition plan of a Commercial Bank in Sierra Leone. We are focused on creating wealth across Africa and our projection is to be among the top African owned businesses in Africa and we believe that with our strength and capabilities, we should be able to achieve this within the next few years”, he said.
