Meet Adebayo Adelabu, accountant appointed minister of power

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has released the list of portfolios for his ministerial appointees, among whom is Adebayo Adelabu, appointed to head the Ministry of Power.

Adelabu is a former deputy governor, of operations of the Central Bank of Nigeria, and 2019 Oyo State gubernatorial candidate for the All Progressives Congress.

He started his career with PriceWaterhouse (now PricewaterhouseCoopers), an international firm of chartered accountants and management consultants.

During his seven years with the firm, he led and managed various audit and consultancy engagements for large banks and non-bank financial institutions within and outside Nigeria.

Read  also: Wale Edun appointed finance minister as Wike gets FCT portfolio

He was on secondment to the Central Bank of Nigeria for one year in 1999 when he led the finance team on the CBN re-engineering and corporate renewal project tagged “Project EAGLES”. Adelabu left the firm in 2000 as an audit manager and senior consultant to join First Atlantic Bank as the Financial Controller and Group Head of Risk Management and Controls. He was later promoted to Chief Inspector of the Bank in 2002 and Group Head of National Public Sector Business in 2003.

The new Minister of power moved to Standard Chartered Bank as the West African Regional Head of Finance and Strategy (Consumer Banking Business) with dual offices in Lagos and Accra. He was there till 2009 and later he became an Executive Director/Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Nigeria’s largest bank, First Bank of Nigeria Plc. (FBN) at the age of 39.

He was later appointed by former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan in February 2014 as Deputy Governor, Operations of the CBN.

Adelabu serves as the Chairman, of the Board of Directors of the Nigeria InterBank Settlement Systems and has chaired the board of the Financial Institution Training Centre. He is also a serving member of the Board of Federal Inland Revenue Services, Nigeria Security Printing and Minting Company, the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria, and the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk-Sharing System for Agricultural Lending.

He was born to Aderibigbe Adelabu of Oke-Oluokun compound, Kudeti Area in Ibadan. His grandfather is Adegoke Adelabu.

Read also: Adelabu, Accord guber candidate congratulates Makinde

He attended Ibadan Municipal Government primary school, Agodi Ibadan from 1976 to 1982 and Lagelu Grammar School, Ibadan from 1982 to 1987.

Adelabu received a first class degree in Accounting from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), a Fellow of Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria and an Associate Member of the Institute of Directors of Nigeria and the United Kingdom.

Adelabu has also taken up professional courses in various business schools, including Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Columbia, Kelloggs, Euromoney, and the University of London.

According to sources close to the Presidency, no date has been fixed for the inauguration, adding however, that a ministerial retreat will soon commence.