Quiet confidence, built on substance
Olu Akanmu is a distinguished figure in the Nigerian and broader African business landscape, recognised for a rare breadth of C-level leadership across healthcare, FMCG, non-profit, telecommunications, banking and fintech — and for his profound impact on financial inclusion.
He holds a Bachelor of Pharmacy from the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) and an MBA from Lagos State University. He earned a Distinction in the Management Advancement Programme of the University of the Witwatersrand Business School, South Africa, and a Postgraduate Certificate in Business Research Methods from Heriot-Watt University’s Edinburgh Business School. He is a Fellow of the National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria, the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria and the Nigeria Academy of Pharmacy.
At university, he was a campus journalist and student activist — editor of a campus magazine, secretary of the Association of Campus Journalists and of Youth Solidarity for South Africa — experiences that instilled a lifelong belief in a society that is “inclusively prosperous, just and fair to all.”
