Sherifah Balogun is a business management professional with a career path spanning close to 12 years of experience in banking, enterprise risk management, digital financial services and public-private partnerships.
Originally trained as a lawyer, she has an MBA in Global Banking and Finance with specialties in Financial Inclusion, Strategic Management and Business Operations from the Exeed College in UAE. She also received certification as a Chartered Manager awarded by the Chartered Management Institute, UK.
Presently, she is the Director of Strategy, Funding and Stakeholder Management at the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF), an impact-driven programmes and coordination agency focused on enabling job creation, entrepreneurial empowerment, and adoption-advocacy for sustainable development goals.
The Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF) was established by the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund Law 2016 to provide financial support to residents of Lagos State, to tackle unemployment through job and wealth creation.
The fund, with an initial capital of N25bn contributed over four years by the Lagos state government, will also raise additional funding from various sources including donor partners, development agencies, corporate organisations and individuals.
Sherifah understands and facilitates instrumental partnerships that lead to fundraising for effective programme dissemination. Furthermore, she drives optimal organisation strategies and effectively manages stakeholders across the board. She tactfully leverages her skills in deal initiation, closure and strategic partnering to develop, manage and deliver partner expectations that harness market opportunities and achieve set goals.
She is dedicated and proficient, and these reflect her capabilities and potential to drive winning projects, re-engineer and deliver on management’s expectations, through partner-centricity and collaborative efforts. Her dedication to and passion for impactful missions makes her an outstanding contributor and leader in the business management and developmental space.
Previously, in association with Sterling Bank Plc., she managed $2m EFInA Innovation Fund (In collaboration with Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) for consumer and agent onboarding. Funds were strictly for marketing purposes for the agent onboarding and customer appreciation programmes under the trade and education product segments, with the financial inclusion unit of the retail group. Relevant branded items were distributed to the market union women and men in the markets in North, South-West and South-South regions of Nigeria. Hundreds of agent network stalls and kiosks were also refurbished and branded nationwide. In addition to these, the product marketing train was taken across all major locations for product activation and sensitisation with free business advisory and consultations.
Sherifah looks forward to culminating her career in policy making and fostering innovative strategic partnerships for entrepreneurs and small businesses in emerging markets.
