Ladi Balogun: Quintessential banker with hands on the plough

The religious allegory in the popular parable of the talents with specific reference to the wise and faithful servant who got the highest number of five talents, doubled them and entered the joy of his master, reminds one of the powerhouse of the Balogun business empire, Ladi Balogun, the young man who was bequeathed the responsibility of developing and sustaining a legacy in an outfit and exceeded expectations at a time when many bigger and stronger banks in the pecking order speedily went under in Nigeria.

The current Group Chief Executive of FCMB Group Plc did not allow his very comfortable background to becloud his determination to pursue the impeccable career he set out to achieve. He pursued his dream with strong determination and hit his target.

The young man now functions as the Group Chief Executive of FCMB Group Plc, a holding company with interests in commercial and investment banking, investment management and pension administration, having successfully completed his tenure as the Chief Executive Officer of First City Monument Bank Limited. In this role, he supervises the FCMB Group which has an operating history of about 40 years in Nigeria, since the establishment of its investment banking business. The Group is said to have over 500,000 shareholders, recording over N1 trillion in assets.

Balogun, who is the President of Otunba Tunwase Foundation, a charitable organisation focused on the health and welfare of children, has spent 24 years in the banking industry working in the United Kingdom, USA and Nigeria.

He began his professional career in 1993 at Morgan Grenfell and Co. Limited, one of the United Kingdom’s most prestigious investment banks, which was later consolidated into the investment banking division of Deutsche Bank. Subsequently, he proceeded to Citibank, at one time the world’s largest financial services institution, in the USA, and was responsible for structured trade finance covering Central and Eastern Europe Middle East and Africa.

The Chairman of Tenet Investment Company, an impact investment company focused on wealth creation for smallholder farmers in Nigeria, has spent the last 20 years at First City Monument Bank, rising to the position of Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer. He led the team that transformed the bank from a small merchant bank with less than 200 employees to a large commercial bank with 10,000 employees, over 4 million customers, 200 branches and a banking subsidiary in the United Kingdom. He led the acquisition and integration dynamics of FCMB with 4 banks over the last 15 years. He also midwifed the establishment of some of FCMB’s most significant subsidiaries including Nigeria’s largest and fastest growing micro-lending organisation, Credit Direct Limited.

In March 2017, he became the Group Chief Executive of FCMB Group Plc and with his hands on the plough, decided to delve into the sphere of pension administration. Recently, the financial expert, who has soft spot for agriculture, micro, small and medium enterprises, youth development and women empowerment, led his team at FCMB Group Plc to acquire majority stake in Legacy Pension Limited. His target was to broaden the holding firm’s service offerings with the group already offering commercial and retail banking, investment banking, asset management, and trusteeship services. The successful completion of that transaction brought FCMB Group’s shareholding in the pension firm to 88.3 per cent, thus becoming its largest shareholder.

It is revealed that under Balogun, FCMB Group Plc developed into one of the frontline conglomerates with the richest pedigrees in financial services in Nigeria. The broadening of its holdings to include a controlling stake in a PFA is very likely to open a new vista of growth and stability to its already established income streams. The bank’s 4 million customers, over 200 branch network and strong digital presence are fertile grounds for the rapid growth of this new addition to his group’s portfolio.

Balogun holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of East Anglia, United Kingdom and an MBA from Harvard Business School, United States of America. He has attended many leadership training programmes in Nigeria and abroad. He has spoken at several high level leadership fora and delivered lectures at public and private citadels of higher learning.