Olu Akanmu, a seasoned marketing industry leader and marketing communications professional, has announced his departure from the services of mobile money payment giant, OPAY where he held the esteemed position of President and co-Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian division of the company.
Having joined the Chinese-owned African Tech startup in late 2021, Akanmu played a crucial role alongside the leadership team in guiding Opay Nigeria to achieve its goals and objectives. With a diverse background in banking and telecommunications sectors, he brought over 20 years of corporate leadership experience to this role.
Before his appointment as Opay Nigeria President, Akanmu had served as the Executive Director for Retail Banking at FCMB for over eight years. Prior to that, he held the position of Senior Vice President/Divisional Head of Retail Banking at the same bank. His previous experiences include five years as the Managing Director for Retail and Consumer Banking at the now-defunct Bank PHB and another five years as the General Manager for Consumer Marketing at MTN. He also served as the Client Service Director at Insights Communication.
Sharing the news of his departure in a LinkedIn post he titled “Moving On: End of a Chapter”, Akanmu expressed gratitude to his colleagues at Opay for their collaborative efforts in deepening financial inclusion in Nigeria. He acknowledged the significant progress made but highlighted the need to continue the collective mission of ensuring that the digital financial system benefits all, including the completely excluded.
“The lesson of the cashless or limited Cash period earlier in the year, is that millions are not yet included despite the progress we have made collectively as an #ecosystem. For the Nigeria #Fintech community, the imperative of ensuring that we serve not only the banked and underserved , but also the completely excluded which still represents at least 45% of our people should be our collective and greater patriotic mission, complementing the historic efforts of traditional players. Collaborations, public private partnerships, and more deliberate coordination at the digital public infrastructure (#dpi) ecosystem layers, would be critical to ensure we succeed in the doing the next heavy lifting to extend the digital financial rail to the next 20 million”, he wrote.
Olu Akanmu has a rich educational background that spans many years within and beyond the shores of the country. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Pharmacy from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. He also bagged an MBA from Lagos State University. He had also attended the University of Witwatersrand and Edinburgh Business School, where he achieved a distinction in the Management Advancement Program and a post-graduate certificate in Business Research, respectively.