Stella Okotete:Executive Director, Business Development, NEXIM Bank

Stella Okotete possesses significant experience in public policy design and implementation, public-private partnership management, international development and general administration.

A graduate of the Benson Idahosa University, Benin City, from where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations and Diplomacy,

Stella also holds a Diploma in Law from the Rivers State College of Arts and Sciences.

She is the executive director, Business Development, at Nexim bank. The bank presently provides short and medium term loans to Nigerian exporters. It also provides short term guarantees for loans granted by Nigerian banks to exporters, as well as credit insurance against political and commercial risks in the event of non-payment by foreign buyers. The bank is also government’s national guarantor under the ECOWAS Inter-state road transit programme.

Stella had a rich mix of professional experience in both the public and private sectors. In 2015, she founded and led a start-up company where she was responsible for providing local and international clients with expert advice, scalable industrial solutions, and opportunities to utilise turnkey solutions for various industrial needs and requirements.

Between 2011 and 2015, she served as the Special Assistant and Adviser to the Executive Governor of Delta State on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) where she provided leadership in establishing and executing programmes with agency groups to ensure that the goals, as well as targets of the United Nations Millennium Declaration were met. In this regard, she championed the review and effective management of the Micro-Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) business policy to tackle poverty and create employment in line with MDGs mandate. She also supported the M&E team of the state’s CCT Scheme and Social Development Policy that aided the growth and expansion of business clusters in the state.

Prior to leading the Delta state MDGs, Stella had a brief stint in politics, having served as an elected Councillor in Ughelli North Local Government Area, a position that helped sharpen her understanding of the socio-economic needs of neglected communities. She was able to deploy this knowledge to ensure that neglected communities in the state were positively impacted by the state’s MDGs strategic intervention programmes.

Stella is an alumnus of Harvard Kennedy School certificate programme for Emerging Leaders as well as the Lagos Business School’s Enterprise Development Centre programme in Entrepreneurial Management. She is keenly involved in volunteer work and has worked with Internally Displaced Persons at IDP camps in Ughelli, Maiduguri and Abuja.