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Adewale Sanyaolu
Retired Executive Director, Small and Medium Enterprises, Bank of Industry (BOI), Dr. Waheed Olagunju, has been commended for his contributions towards the growth of the Development Finance Institution (DFI) over a period of almost 3 decades.
The commendations were made during the send-forth dinner organised by the Bank for Dr. Olagunju upon his retirement ahead of his 60th birthday after serving the bank for 28 years.
BOI Chairman, Alhaji Aliyu AbdulRahman Dikko, said Dr. Olagunju was part of the team that transformed the Nigerian Industrial Development Bank (NIDB) to the Bank of Industry (BOI) having joined the bank from the media in 1990 as Head of the Corporate Communications Department and rose to become the bank’s Company Secretary, a position he occupied for sixteen years after which he was appointed Executive Director in 2012.
During the six years that he served as ED, Dr Olagunju at different times also acted as the bank’s Managing Director. In his words: “The bank will definitely never forget you as your name will be written in gold in the history of the bank”.
He said during the period Olagunju was in charge of the bank, he and his management team were responsible for improving the bank’s international rating, a move that aided the DFI’s access to different international lines of credit. He said Olagunju also brought out the brand of BOI to the public domain, pointing out that the bank’s television impact programme series that he initiated resulted in milestone achievements for the bank.
“We do not see Dr Olagunju leaving BOI as such, because we believe we can come to you anytime, you will be an extension of BOI and you will continue to be our ambassador in taking the bank to greater heights, “he said. Also, the Managing Director of the Bank, Mr Olukayode Pitan, said working with Dr. Olagunju in the last one year and half has been great and rewarding without any problem whatsoever, stressing that he is a very humble and knowledgeable person who is endowed with considerable institutional memory.
“If you want to know anything about BOI just ask him. He has mental records that he also supports with relevant documents.
He said courtesy of the Impactful Communication Programmes that he handled, the bank has received local and global recognitions as the foremost leading DFI.
