Ms. Bunmi Lawson is the immediate past and the pioneer Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of ACCION Microfinance Bank Limited. She led the commencement of operations of the bank in May 2007 starting with one branch and 18 staff and grew the bank to become a National Microfinance Bank with over 259,313 customer accounts and 37,800 active borrowers serviced in over 62 branches in 6 states in Nigeria and over 1,000 total staff members as at Dec 2017 when she completed her tenor in line with the Central Bank of Nigeria’s regulations. She oversaw the growth of the bank to become one of the top 5 microfinance banks in Nigeria with year on year consistent growth over the ten year period. Under Bunmi’s leadership the bank achieved profitability within its first full 12 months and has consistently ranked number one using Return on equity indicators see published reports here http://www.accionmfb.com/Library/Documents/Annual-Reports/2016-Annual-Report-and-Account.aspx
Ms. Lawson holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the IESE Business School, University of Navarra and is an alumnus of the Lagos Business School. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria and a Member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria. She is also a Fellow of the following Institutes; Institute of Credit Administration of Nigeria, Institute of Credit & Collections Management of Nigeria and Association of Investment Advisers & Portfolio Managers of Nigeria.
She has attended several courses both locally and internationally at renowned institutions including Harvard Business School, INSEAD and the Boulder Institute for Microfinance and has successfully completed the CBN/CIBN Microfinance Certification Programme. She has presented several lectures/speeches both locally and internationally in Microfinance and other areas of capacity building for small scale industries and young entrepreneurs, SME Financing as well as been part of special workgroups on various topics bothering on several aspects of the Nigerian economy.
She is currently a director on various boards including
· Vice President, Fintech Association, Nigeria
· Director, CIBN Press a subsidiary of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria CIBN
· Member, Advisory Board of Bridge International Academies, Nigeria
· Member, Advisory Board of Co-Creation Hub (CcHub), Nigeria
· Member, Advisory Board of MaTontine Inc. New York, USA:
· Member, Advisory board Simply Exponential Consult Limited
A member of the Lagos Angel Network and Chairman of the Microfinance Learning and Development Center implementation committee of the Nigerian microfinance platform
She was a Committee member of the following; Technical Research and Public Policy Committee of Institute of Chartered accountants of Nigeria, Strategic Review Committee of Developing Effective Private Education, Nigeria (DEEPEN), Enterprise Development Centre (EDC), Lagos business school, Steering Committee on the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women (CBFW) ‘Technology for Change’ (T4C) project and member SME, Finance & Financial Markets Policy Commission (SFFPC) of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group.
Prior to joining ACCION, Bunmi was the Executive Director of FATE Foundation Ltd/Gte, a leading business development service provider, a co-owner and Executive Director of VLA Lawrence & Associates, a leading Human Resources services organization and has over 29 years post graduate experience in finance, insurance, marketing, auditing and banking.