Babatunde is a seasoned finance expert with over 20 years of experience in Investment Banking, Corporate Finance, Development Finance, Capital Markets and Project Finance. Renowned for his innovative initiatives, he executed the largest corporate bond issuance in the Nigerian Capital Market in 2014 in his role as the Director of Capital Markets at United Capital Plc, raising approximately $200 million for a Tier-1 bank in a record 11-week period.
Subsequently, Babatunde advanced to become the Managing Director/CEO of United Capital's Investment Banking business. In this capacity, he spearheaded and managed a broad range of services, including Project & Structured Finance, Mergers & Acquisitions, Corporate Finance, Trade Finance, and Debt/Equity Capital Markets, and he had oversight responsibility for transaction origination, structuring, arranging and execution providing bespoke financing solutions to the needs of corporate and government entities. He possesses extensive cognate experience in capital markets; and as such has played a pivotal role in originating and executing several notable landmark transactions in the Capital Markets space in Nigeria, including the novel US$300m Diaspora Bonds issued by the Federal Government of Nigeria in 2017, and notable project finance transactions across the African continent raising in excess of $7bn in fresh capital for various corporate institutions and Government entities both sovereign and sub-sovereigns. His leadership was instrumental in driving the company's growth and expansion in these areas.
Babatunde's career trajectory then led him to the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group where he served as the Regional Business Lead for the Financial Institutions Group in Anglophone West Africa, and where he focused on working with financial institutions in the region to provide much-needed access to finance for millions of individuals and businesses to bridge development gaps, mobilize private capital, and support local capital markets. At IFC, his role involved fostering development through financial initiatives and supporting financial institutions in the region, and he worked with financial intermediaries to support access to essential financial services, climate finance, gender finance, fintech, trade, insurance, microfinance and SME Finance.
His extensive qualifications and diverse experiences underscore his expertise and leadership in the finance industry. He has received many awards in the finance industry and was part of the team that drafted the 10-year Nigeria capital market master plan the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2015, and the Nigeria Infrastructure Financing Plan for the Central Bank of Nigeria in 2012.
Babatunde is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers (CIS) and a member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA). He is also affiliated with the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI) in the UK. Babatunde has a master’s degree in international securities, Investment, and Banking from ICMA Centre, Henley Business School, University of Reading, UK and B.Sc. Economics (Hons.) degree from Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria. Additionally, he has also attended executive/leadership programmes at leading Business Schools globally, he is an alumnus of the Senior Management programme of the Lagos Business School , and an alumnus of the prestigious Global CEO programme, a collaboration among Wharton (USA), IESE (Spain), and CEIBS (China) Business Schools.