PROFILE
Abimbola is a graduate of Business Administration from the University of Lagos and an MBA holder from the University of Leicester, United Kingdom with specialization in Quality Management.
She has over 20 years experience in banking, spanning brand management, strategic planning, digital banking, and corporate sustainability and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG). She started her career with Bond Bank which later merged with five other banks to form Skye Bank in 2006. She joined Wema Bank in 2015 as Head of Strategy and moved to become the Project Manager for Wema Bank's award-winning digital banking flagship platform, ALAT in 2016 and later became the Head of Commercial for ALAT by Wema.
She is currently the Head of Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility department with focus on developing and implementing solutions that will effectively impact the society, environment, and business. Abimbola has been in the forefront in driving inclusive socio-economic initiatives with focus on making impact on youth and women. Some of the initiatives include Hackaholics a gathering of radical minds coming together to develop solutions to pertinent problems in our environment leveraging on digital technology. She has also led several women empowerment initiatives which include capacity building, skill acquisition, mentorship, and financial inclusion/literacy.
ACHIEVEMENTS
Developing Digital Solutions for Societal Impact Abimbola believes that technology is critical to innovation and inclusive development. Hence, she has continued to drive initiatives such as the three (3) annual Hackaholics events and suported tech-inclined projects and organisations such as Girls can Code, Africa Agility, Tech Chicks amongs others. She also mentors the participants of the projects post implementation to enable them to scale their solutions for far-reaching impacts in the society and environment. Such startups include Soco Care, Natal Cares and a host of others making a difference in our world.
Driving Increased Female Empowerment and Development: In her capacity as the Vice-Chairperson of the Wema Women Network, Abimbola has consistently led the drive for development and career advancement of women across diverse levels in the Bank. She has created and strengthened platforms and initiatives targeted at personal and professional development opportunities for younger women such as capacity building, skill acquisition, mentorship, and financial inclusion/literacy. She has impacted over 1,400 women in the workforce and continues to mentor young women in the Bank to rise to the highest heights in all endeavour of life. Abimbola also leads women empowerment initiatives through the bank's gender proposition, SARA by Wema and has impacted over 100,000 women through capacity building seminars, grants, health
awareness, etc.
Driving Sustainability and ESG: Abimbola is the pioneer Head, Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility in Wema Bank. She was instrumental to the development of the Bank's corporate sustainability strategy and structure. She led the design of policies processes, operational activities, objective setting, integration and entrenchment of corporate sustainability in Wema Bank. She also
developed and implemented the framework for effective monitoring, evaluation, and reporting of key metrics on the implementation and impact of the Bank's sustainability initiatives. With her ESG expertise, she drives the Bank's corporate citizenship framework and implementation of the Nigerian Sustainable Banking Principles. Through her leadership, the Bank's sustainability structure has evolved to Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG), which is the new frontier for corporates for societal and environmental impact. This is evident as Wema Bank became of one the signatory founders of the United Nations Environment Protection Finance Initiative Principles for Responsible Banking (UNEP-FI PRBs) in 2019 and subscribed to other global best practices principles such as United Nations Women Empowerment Principles (UNWEP).
Economic and Societal Impact through her role as the Head, Corporate Sustainability & Responsibility at Wema Bank, Abimbola has impacted over 500,000 people in Nigeria through the creation and leadership of initiatives such as
-Declutter and Donate: An initiative created to promote sustainable living and enrich lives, where members of staff are encouraged to donate decently used items to crisis-affected areas and underprivileged communities. For example, the donations made to Old Awuru Community in Borgu Local Government Area and Maikakaki Community in Shiroro Local Government Area, Niger State helped recovery efforts for inhabitants of the flood-ravaged communities. Other communities such as Nautiko, Tasakpan and Jikogbe communities in Niger State have also been impacted through this initiative.
-Salary for Love: An initiative where February is tagged the month of love and staff are encouraged to donate their one-day salary for the benefit of the disadvantaged and most vulnerable people in the society.
-iVolunteer - the employee volunteering initiative which has bolstered the Bank?s
environmental and socio-economic impact across Nigeria with over 140,000 beneficiaries.
Speaking Engagements: Abimbola is a prolific speaker of repute. She has sat on various panels and given keynote addresses at high-profile events such as SheCan Conference 2021, Entrepreneurship Summit 2021 in collaboration with LSETF and UNICAF, Inclusive Leaders in Africa Conference 2022, RIMAN Conference 2022, FOCAD Career Summer Camp 2022, Making Finance Work for Africa, Promoting a Gender Sensitive Recovery Post COVID, Gender Mainstreaming Award for West Africa
2022, Driving Financial Inclusion in Africa amongst others.
Get In Touch
PC 19, Adeola, Hopewell Street, Victoria Island, Lagos
