Dr. Akin-Olusoji AKINYELE, FIMC, M.CIOD
Soji Akinyele is a visionary and strategic leader with over two decades of experience in economic policy research, investment banking, capital markets and financial systems, education systems transformation and development interventions. He is a trained economist, government technocrat and business leader with proven track records in driving public-private partnerships, regulatory reforms implementation
He most recently served as the Group Managing Director of NewGlobe in Nigeria, overseeing the operational, technical and business development partnerships with government in Nigeria to build globally competitive public schools. These partnerships have delivered transformational learning outcomes in basic education to over 1.7 million children across five states in Nigeria – notable among them are the EdoBEST and JigawaUNITE Programmes funded by the World Bank and Islamic Development Bank respectively
He previously served as Director of Policy for Africa at Women’s World Banking – a New York based NGO advancing access to financial products for low- income women all over the world – where he drove the policy advocacy and framework for engaging with the Central Banks of Nigeria, Egypt, Ethiopia and Mozambique, among others.
He once served as Head of Government Relations and Special Assistant to the CEO of The Nigerian Stock Exchange – overseeing the regulatory interfacing, government stakeholder management and business development efforts across the strategic branches of Nigeria’s foremost securities exchange worth over $120 billion in market capitalization.
Prior to joining the Exchange, Soji served as an Embedded Adviser and Technical Assistant on Industry, Trade and Investment to the Vice President of Nigeria – His Excellency, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo GCON, where he interacted directly with World Bank counterparts and project managed the implementation of ease of doing business policy reforms at both national and sub-national levels. He was a core member of the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council Secretariat (PEBEC), that achieved the unprecedented 39-place improvement in Nigeria’s World Bank Doing Business rankings between 2016 and 2019.
He is also an investment and market researcher. He once led the Research Team at the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) – Nigeria’s foremost policy think-tank, where he oversaw the utilization of World Bank grant and championed the in-house publication of a Presidential Scorecard of Economic Performance presented to His Excellency President Goodluck Jonathan GCFR in 2012. He and his team also published over 40 policy papers and economic briefs on behalf of the NESG.
He has served as Senior Economist and Member of the Editorial Board of BusinessDay – Nigeria’s leading business newspaper, where he analysed the political and economic manifestoes of the two major political parties in Nigeria’s 2015 General Elections, among other front-page publications and editorials.
Also in 2015, Dr. Akinyele established the Nigeria office of a global business research firm, driving business development efforts that executed the award-winning commercial due diligence for $80 million private equity investment in a Nigerian biscuit manufacturer, among other achievements.
As a business and global development consultant, he has consulted for the UNDP; UK-DFID; World Economic Forum; Africa CEO Forum; the Gordon Institute of Business Science (South Africa) and the West African Capital Market School (Ghana), among others. He has also served as a member of the Advisory Council of the Gender Centre of Excellence at the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors (RPA) as well as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Committee on the Framework for Advancing Women Financial Inclusion in Nigeria.
Dr. Akinyele serves pro-bono as the founding Dean of Joseph Business School, Lagos Nigeria – a Christian educational franchise from the Joseph Business School in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He is an alumnus of the University of Lagos (Economics Department) and has earned Certificates from the London Graduate School, Blavatnik School of Government (University of Oxford) and Harvard University, among others. Soji Akinyele is also a Fellow of the Institute of Management Consultants; a Member of the Chartered Institute of Directors (Nigeria) and Chair of Technical Committee on Advocacy Framework for the CIoD Public Sector Group. He is also a Member of the Global Council of the World Agriculture Forum.
In 2021, ’Soji Akinyele was awarded a Doctor of Economics degree (Honoris Causa) by the Commonwealth University in recognition of his achievements in economic policy research, reforms analysis, policy design and implementation.