Ongoing efforts to transform the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) received a big boost with President Muhammadu Buhari’s appointment of Mr. Ayodeji Ariyo Gbeleyi as the bank’s Chairman, Board of Directors and his inauguration by the Minister of Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola, last week at the Ministry’s headquarters in Abuja.
The inauguration formalised Ayodeji’s appointment as a replacement for Chief Adewale Adesoji Adeeyo, who passed on last year. As the Board Chairman, Gbeleyi would be responsible for steering the strategic direction of reforms at the Bank.
Analysis of Gbeleyi’s educational profile and remarkable professional career in the private and public sectors showed that he is a fit and valuable choice for the position. His wide-ranging wealth of experience, deep knowledge, and expertise in public finance management and policy making would add zest to the ongoing efforts of the Ahmed Musa Dangiwa-led Management to transform FMBN into a more impactful and efficient affordable housing provider to Nigerians within the low and medium-income brackets.
Ayodeji – Towering Profile of Accomplishments
Gbeleyi brings to the FMBN Board a solid track record of competencies and accomplishments. He is currently the Managing Partner/CEO of GA Capital Limited, a niche-player advisory firm in the Infrastructure Project Finance, Public-Private Partnerships, Public Finance Management and Regulatory space. He is an ICAN Award-Winning Chartered Accountant, a Fellow of both the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria and an MBA Holder, University of Navarra IESE, Spain.
He possesses broad skills-set and cross-functional expertise in Public Policy Making, Public Finance Management, Public-Private Partnerships (PPP), Corporate Governance & Strategy Formulation, Project Finance, Treasury Risks Management, Investment Banking, Financial Advisory, Multi-Stakeholders Relationship Management, Financial Control & Reporting, Banking Operations, and Auditing. He is also an alumnus of the prestigious London Business School, and Lagos Business School and has attended several local and foreign capacity development programmes at Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Wharton School University of Pennsylvania, etc
Furthermore, Gbeleyi has over three decades of post qualification hands-on experience and exposure in diverse sectors and multi-cultural work environments, including manufacturing, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), banking, insurance, telecoms, power, infrastructure, and public administration. He has led a series of large ticket and complex infrastructure project transactions across economic and social sectors.
His private sector experience in senior management up to C-Suite roles span Nestle Plc, Nigerian Bottling Company Plc, Marina International Bank, Lead Merchant Bank, Guardian Express Bank Plc, Econet Wireless Nigeria, Vodacom Nigeria, Vmobile Nigeria, Celtel Nigeria and Arican Advisory Services. He was Treasurer at three different banks during his banking career.
At a time when FMBN is seeking to leverage private capital and government funding towards a N500billion recapitalisation drive, Gbeleyi’s expertise in financial deal-making, strong reputation, and industry recognition within the private and government circles would be most useful. He has criss-crossed widely across the globe and extensively involved in leading International Roadshows aimed at attracting much-needed Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) into Nigeria.
He led the Finance Team of Vmobile as the Chief Treasury Officer that spearheaded the deal negotiation culminating in the successful raising in September 2005 of over $1.1 billion multi-currency and multi-sourced project finance.
The transaction, a blockbuster in the annals of Project Finance in Nigeria was voted the “Europe Middle-East & Africa (EMEA) Telecoms Deal of the Year 2005” by Project Finance Magazine a publication of Euromoney Institutional Investor Plc, UK, a global authority in the reporting and analysis of developments in the project and infrastructure financing arena.
Similarly, the deal was nominated for the “ThisDay Newspaper 2005 Transaction of the Year”. The transaction included components for vendor financing from OEM’s; Ericsson, Motorolla, Siemens, Harris and Huawei to fund the flagship Project ROSE (Roll-Out Service Everywhere).
Additionally, he played a pivotal role in the negotiation of the circa US$1 Billion investment transaction that resulted in the May 2006 acquisition of 65 percent equity stake in Vmobile by Celtel International B.V. In this regard he championed on record till date and in a seamless manner the single largest Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) of US$1 Billion foreign exchange inflow into Nigeria without any disruption to the market nor creating a US$/Naira rate volatility in collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Gbeleyi is also no stranger to championing innovative change through strategic partnerships and breaking new grounds. As a former Commissioner for Finance in the Lagos State Government Executive Council he had the concurrent responsibility for the oversight of the Office of Public Private Partnerships (PPP). In that capacity, he doubled as the Special Adviser to the Governor and the pioneer Director-General of the Lagos State Office of PPP, the Agency driving the Government-to-Business (G2B) collaboration anchor policy thrust for the acceleration of infrastructure delivery and provision of social services towards the actualisation of the Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) Administration’s vision of making Lagos Africa’s Model Megacity. Amongst multiple other Reforms championed, he anchored the first ever publication of the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) compliant Government Audited Financial Statements in Nigeria in 2015. He was headhunted in a global recruitment process as the pioneer Director-general to set up the Lagos State Office of PPP, a pacesetter agency in Nigeria.
He also led the closure of one of the largest sub-National Bonds in Africa of N87.5 Billion (circa US$565 million) in 2013, Two Tranches of the World Bank Development Policy Operation of US$200 Million Concessionary Facility each, French Development Agency 20-year tenor US$100 Million concessionary Loan, World Bank $42 Million Education Intervention Facility and the upgrade of the State’s National Long Term Rating by Fitch Ratings to “AA+ (nga) with Stable Outlook”. He equally played a pivot role in the setting up, in conjunction with Infrastructure Concessioning & Regulatory Commission (ICRC), the Nigeria PPP Network (NPPPN) for sector-wide knowledge sharing and capacity building for both public and private sectors’ practitioners.
As a result of his wide experience, profound knowledge, and value that he commands, Gbeleyi has been a much sought-after addition to Corporate Board Rooms. He is the Chairman, Board of Directors – Axa-Mansard Health Limited, Chairman, Board of Directors – Northwest Quadrant Development Limited (& Alaro City Development FZC – Lekki Free Zone), Member – Statutory Board Audit Committee, Stanbic-IBTC Bank Plc, Member – BusinessDay Editorial Advisory Board, and Chairman Board of Governors, Baptist College of Theology Lagos.
He is also the immediate past Chairman, Board of Directors – Yola Electricity Distribution Company Plc, and previously served as Member – Board of Directors Volkswagen of Nigeria, Chairman – Board of Directors Lekki Concession Company Limited (LCC), Director, Med-view Airline Plc, Chairman – Lagos State Mortgage Board (LagosHOMS), Member – Cooperative Home Ownership Incentive Scheme (CHOIS) Board and Council Member – Lagos Chamber of Commerce & Industry (LCCI), Chairman, Board – Development Office, College of Medicine (University of Ibadan), Board Member, – Lagos State Public Procurement Agency, Member – Lagos Innovation Council, amongst others.
Ready to Work
Gbeleyi understands the urgency of addressing Nigeria’s housing challenge and the strategic importance of a strong, financially robust, and efficiently managed FMBN, to deal with the problem in collaboration with other key stakeholders. During his inauguration last week, he expressed readiness and commitment to steering the executive management team. Notably, he said he would guide the Bank towards realizing the laudable goals encapsulated in the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of the FMBN five-year Strategic Turnaround Plan, which the Bank produced in collaboration with Messrs. KPMG, a reputable international consultancy firm. The plan was approved for implementation at the 202nd meeting of the Board of Directors in May 2020.
The KPI’s include financing 100,000 housing units by 2024; growing the number of National Housing Fund (NHF) contributors from the current 5 million to 31.6 million, and aggressively transforming the mixture of formal/informal sector contribution from 80:20 to 50:50 by the year 2024 through widening of informal sector participation and accelerating the growth of NHF contributions from annual collections of N48.8 billion in 2019 to N284.7 billion by the year 2024.
Source : This Day
