Opeyemi Oduwole is a seasoned wealth management professional with knowledge in both local and international wealth management and advisory services. Being someone who started out her life wanting to be an Engineer and who went on to read Chemical Engineering at the University of Lagos, being a banker and loving it came as a surprise to Opeyemi. Stumbling into Banking seemed like a coincidence but turned out to be the best career decision ever.
Opeyemi is extremely passionate about the need to bridge the gap between development in Africa and the world, and also about increasing the wealth in Africa. Having spent over a decade managing High Networth Individuals (HNI) and Ultra High Networth individuals (UHNI) by providing wealth advisory and transactional services both locally and internationally, Ope is currently the Country Head of Private Banking for Sterling Bank, she had previously served as the Head of Privilege Banking for Diamond Bank.
Women development is an area very dear to her heart, born out of watching so many women struggle through the years. Being an associate of Women in Management Business and Politics (WIMBIZ) has given her the opportunity to serve in this area. Ope served on the annual conference planning committee last year and is currently serving on the registration subcommittee for the 2019 annual conference.
In 2018, she was nominated as one of the Leading Women in Banking by The Association of Professional Women Bankers (a chapter of the Charter Institute of Bankers in Nigeria)
On why she switched from Engineering to Banking, she says it actually wasn’t a deliberate switch, because after studying Chemical Engineering, she decided she didn’t want to work on the rig but wanted to go into design. Though she got options to work with oil and gas firms but they were rig related work and she wasn’t interested. Ope had been at home for a year waiting
for her dream job (the optimism of a young graduate) when a close friend mentioned an opening to work as a personal assistant to senior management at a Bank .
“I reasoned that a personal assistant job was better than sitting at home and would occupy me while I waited for my dream job so I went in for the interview. The result of the interview was an opportunity to work in Private Banking. I however took the job still thinking I was ‘buying time’ for my dream job but fell in love with helping people grow their wealth.” She said.
In bridging the gap between development in Africa and the world, Ope has helped to increase wealth in Africa through Private banking. In her words,” Private Banking is a niche area of banking; It gives you the opportunity to not only interact with wealthy Africans in Africa but also Africans in the diaspora. One very evident fact in wealth distribution is a very significant portion of the wealth of Africans sits outside Africa. The wealth sits in different banks across Europe, America and the Middle East”. She revealed
Due to the large gap in development present across Africa, there are varied investment opportunities to develop infrastructure, expand businesses and provide funding for African governments to effectively run their countries. To this, Opeyemi says risk is very perception-driven and to an African who understands how the African market evolves, the risk is worth the return.
Being relevant in your field is what Opeyemi says will stand you out. According to her, you must ensure you are relevant in your field because money always follows value addition. “I will spend my money wherever I perceive I will or have received value. The interpretation of value differs from organisation to organisation and person to person. If an organisation feels they have received value from you and will receive more value, they will reward you for adding value and want to keep you to harness more value.”
