Adedapo Adedayo Olagunju, an Oxford-trained banker who has led JPMorgan’s West African operations since 2018, is ready to head the American monetary establishment’s proposed service provider financial institution in Nigeria, following the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) approval of his nomination as Managing Director.
The CBN disclosed its approval of Olagunju’s nomination in an announcement issued on Friday, October 23, 2026, alongside its resolution to grant JPMorgan approval-in-principle to establish JPMorgan Merchant Bank Nigeria Limited.
The proposed financial institution is but to obtain a last working licence.
Alongside Olagunju, the CBN additionally permitted Latter Kevin George, Nzelu Chinedum Izunwanne and Syed Gabriel Murtaza as Non-Executive Directors, whereas Alade Sarah Omotunde, Ajayi Olukonyinsola and Adetu Seni have been appointed Independent Non-Executive Directors.
For Olagunju, the appointment marks one other milestone in a profession that started in Nigeria’s funding banking trade. But lengthy earlier than managing monetary markets and institutional relationships, his ambition was to discover house.
From dreaming of changing into an astronaut to constructing a banking profession
Growing up, Olagunju was fascinated by house journey and dreamed of changing into an astronaut, an ambition that originally formed his resolution to research science in secondary faculty.
However, that ambition took a unique route when he started exploring college admission alternatives in Nigeria.
In a May 2019 interview, Olagunju recalled discovering that the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) brochure didn’t supply a course associated to aeronautical engineering, limiting his choices for pursuing his childhood dream.
- His mother and father additionally positioned appreciable emphasis on educational achievement, prompting him to sit for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination’s predecessor, the JAMB entrance examination, earlier than finishing secondary faculty.
Having already handed the non-public Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE), he secured admission to college earlier than sitting for his West African Examinations Council (WAEC) examinations.
Although his ambition to change into an astronaut didn’t materialise, his educational journey ultimately led him into finance, a discipline wherein he would construct his skilled profession.
- He graduated from Ogun State University, now Olabisi Onabanjo University, in 1998 with a bachelor’s diploma in Banking and Finance.
- A yr later, in 1999, he certified as a chartered accountant, including knowledgeable accounting qualification to his college schooling.
However, his resolution to pursue accounting was partly influenced by the instability that characterised Nigeria’s college system in the Nineties.
At the time, frequent industrial actions by college lecturers and scholar demonstrations usually disrupted educational actions, leaving college students out of faculty for prolonged durations.
Rather than permit a kind of extended breaks to interrupt his educational progress, Olagunju started making ready for examinations organised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN).
The resolution proved vital, as he accomplished the skilled qualification shortly after graduating and subsequently secured a possibility in funding banking.
- His pursuit of additional schooling continued past Nigeria. In 2005, he attended the University of Oxford for a Master of Business Administration (MBA), earlier than finishing Harvard Business School’s General Management Programme in 2014.
He can also be a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria and an Honorary Senior Member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria.
From IBTC to JPMorgan, a profession spanning over 20 years
Olagunju’s skilled banking profession started at Investment Banking & Trust Company (IBTC), an establishment that later grew to become a part of Stanbic IBTC, the place he served as Chief Dealer between January 2000 and March 2003.
- His entry into IBTC got here at a interval when Nigeria was present process vital financial and political modifications following its return to democratic governance in 1999.
- After spending simply over three years at IBTC, he moved to Access Bank in 2003 as Treasurer, a place he held till September 2005.
His duties in treasury administration gave him additional publicity to banking liquidity, monetary markets and the administration of monetary belongings and liabilities.
Following his preliminary interval at Access Bank, Olagunju briefly labored as a advisor with the United Nations between May and July 2006, contributing to the organisation’s peacekeeping financing operations in New York.
- He subsequently returned to Access Bank in September 2006, starting an 11-year interval as Group Treasurer that lasted till January 2018.
- During this era, he grew to become liable for key facets of the financial institution’s treasury operations, together with stability sheet administration and actions involving fixed-income securities and overseas alternate markets.
His duties expanded additional in January 2017 when he grew to become Head of Global Markets, overseeing a enterprise group that mixed Treasury, Financial Institutions, and Project and Structured Finance.
The place introduced collectively a number of areas of company and institutional banking, from managing relationships with different monetary establishments to offering structured financing and advisory companies to shoppers.
After practically 15 years of affiliation with Access Bank, Olagunju made one other profession transfer in January 2018, becoming a member of JPMorgan as Managing Director liable for its West African enterprise.
- The appointment positioned him at the helm of the American monetary establishment’s actions throughout the area, the place he has spent the previous eight years overseeing its engagement with monetary establishments, company shoppers and different market individuals.
His management has coincided with JPMorgan’s efforts to deepen its African presence, together with its plans to set up a completely licensed service provider banking operation in Nigeria.
- On October 8, 2026, Olagunju disclosed these plans throughout the Nigeria–Asia Financial Connectivity Dialogue in Singapore, an occasion involving the CBN, JPMorgan, Nigerian Exchange Group and FMDQ Group.
The proposed service provider financial institution would broaden JPMorgan’s current Nigerian presence past its consultant workplace in Lagos, permitting it to pursue a wider vary of regulated banking actions as soon as it secures a last licence.
With the CBN now approving his appointment as Managing Director of the proposed subsidiary, Olagunju is positioned to lead the subsequent section of JPMorgan’s growth in Nigeria, greater than 26 years after starting his skilled journey at IBTC.
