Since Dr Akinade Ogunbiyi joined the Osun guber race, a few months back, he has continued to enjoy the support of many stakeholders and leaders of the party, who have supported his ambition.
They feel that of all the aspirants who have come out so far, he is the most intellectually articulate. He is also the one with a track record of achievements. They all see him as a Gentleman whose White is White and Black is Black.
Over the last few months, he has been going around all the party leaders in the state to canvass support for his ambition and he has received overwhelming support and approval.
What will also help him is the recent Award conferred on him by the alumni of his alma mater, Obafemi Awolowo University. Let’s quickly tell you that he is an innovative leader and well-grounded scholar who identifies opportunities and creates great and highly beneficial values from them through Entrepreneurship.
Armed with a PhD in Insurance and Risk Management, he has accumulated over the years, unique skills and capabilities through his insatiable search for knowledge.
He graduated in 1986 with a Second Class Upper division in Agricultural Economics from the University of Ife, Nigeria (now Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife). He has an Executive Master’s Degree from the University of Navarra, Barcelona, Spain; Global Executive Leadership Certificate from Yale School of Management; Certified High Potential Leader Education from Harvard Business School and a Graduate Advanced Management Leadership Course from Said Business School, University of Oxford.
Akin is an Associate Member of the Chartered Insurance Institute of London and a Fellow of the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (FCIIN). He is a Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Directors (FIoD); Fellow West Africa Insurance Institute, Banjul, Gambia and also a Fellow of the Risk Managers Society of Nigeria (RIMSON).
His career development in Insurance started during his undergraduate studies when he ventured into Agricultural Insurance as his choice of specialization. Soon after graduation, Dr Ogunbiyi was employed in 1988 by the National Insurance Corporation of Nigeria (NICON Plc) as a Research & Planning Officer. He worked in various strategic capacities within the Corporation, including the training of chief executives of Insurance Companies from sister African countries.
In his entrepreneurial pursuits, he has taken quite some risks. He gave up an impressive and promising career at NICON to go into Insurance Consultancy– a business hitherto unexplored and without a precedent of success in Nigeria. Dr Akin Ogunbiyi was the pioneer Chief Executive of Finance & Insurance Expert Limited, a firm of Finance, Insurance, Environmental and Management Consultants as Managing Partner/Chief Executive Officer in 1992.
A resilient business Manager, he has continued to create wealth for the Nation through the establishment of many viable and well-managed businesses. He is currently the Group Chairman of Mutual Benefits Group- a Conglomerate with nine subsidiaries and over 5,000 employees, who are gainfully employed in various value-adding sectors of the Nigerian and other nations economies. Akin is the Chairman of the USIG, a real estate investment firm and Charles Enterprises LLC; both in the USA, and CIL (Inc) the UK.
A philanthropist and God-fearing technocrat, Dr Akin Ogunbiyi is presently promoting the establishment of a private University under the Arubiewe Educational Foundation. The Foundation has supported over a hundred scholarship awards and sponsorship of students in secondary, tertiary and professional education. Of these awards, there were 10 graduates of the West Africa College of Insurance, Banjul, Gambia; 15 graduates from Chartered Institutes of Insurance and Management, Lagos, Nigeria; a postgraduate studies leading to the award of PhD in Architecture from the University of Leeds, the United Kingdom among others. The Foundation which provides Awards and sponsorship of students on yearly basis has currently 15 pupils who just finished their Primary School in Adeleke College, Ede, 5 undergraduate students in private university and several others in diploma and professional education. He sits on the boards of many companies both in Nigeria and other countries.
He founded and nurtured Mutual Benefits Assurance Plc, a Nigerian company into an enhanced private-sector initiative with full-fledged affiliate companies in the Niger Republic and Liberia.
He integrated and successfully transformed the coordinated business units into highly profitable business ventures in Insurance, Oil and Gas, Agriculture, Transportation Logistics, Real Estate, Banking, and Mining.
He pioneered grass-root insurance with its tailor-made offerings as a catalyst for revenue gains, growth and expansion in the economies of catchment countries.
Dr Akin Ogunbiyi is the Chief Promoter/Founder/Chairman of Mutual Benefits Group- a Conglomerate with many subsidiaries in various real sectors of the Nigerian and African economies. He has worked in the Managing Director/CEO capacity for 15 years, Group Managing Director for more than 5 years and is presently the Group Chairman of the Board.
Dr Ogunbiyi was the Chief Promoter/Founding Managing Director and Chief Executive of VTL Insurance Brokers Ltd from January 1993 to September 1995. It was the experience he gathered from here that prompted him to go ahead and found MUTUAL Benefits Assurance Plc. which commenced operations on the 2nd October 1995. From January 1992 to December of the same year, he held the position of the Managing Partner/Chief Executive of Finance & Insurance Experts Limited, situated at 14, Kofo Abayomi Street, Apapa, Lagos.
 He also worked in the National Insurance Corporation of Nigeria (NICON) from 1988 to 1991 and held the positions of the Research and Planning Officer as well as Head of the Economic and Business Development Unit at different times.
As a Research and Planning Officer at NICON, Akin was responsible for the Research and development of new products, generated statistics from operational units/departments for management use, visited/inspected area/branch offices for control and monitoring purposes, carried out an analysis of government fiscal/monetary policies and implications for the insurance industry and the Corporation and also liaised with the Federal Office of Statistics, Central Bank of Nigeria and other regulatory authorities for data verification and confirmation.
As Head of Economic & Business Development Unit, Akin was directly responsible for various special assignments which included collation and preparation of the Corporation’s Annual Budget/Business Plans; organisation of NICON Annual Strategic Management Conference; co-ordination of operational/functional units for effective implementation of strategic management conference decision and policies; preparation of conference/seminar papers for The Chief Executive presentation; provision of technical services to other insurance companies at various growth stages; part of the team that co-ordinated the implementation of the commercialisation of NICON with the Technical Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation (TCPC). In spite of his very busy schedules at the Corporation, Akin passed his London Insurance professional examination with distinctions in two sittings.
As a fresh graduate, Akin started his career at Askars Insurance Brokers, Ikeja, Lagos where he worked from 1987 to 1988.
For his National Youth Service Corps in 1986, Akin served at Promoserve Limited in Surulere, Lagos.
As an astute believer in continuous self-development, Akin has attended many courses and seminars
·Global Executive Leadership Program, Yale School of Management, University of Yale, June 2016 to September 2017
·The Oxford Advanced Management and Leadership Programme, Said Business School, University of Oxford, October 2011;
·High Potential Leadership Program, Harvard Business School, 2008
·Entrepreneurship Program and Operational Strategy and Competition, Lagos Business School (LBS); 1998
·Venture Capital Financing and Management, International Graduate School of Management (IESE), Barcelona, Spain, 1998
·Insurance Management Development Course, Lagos Business School, June 1996
·African Insurance Organisation Conference, Dakar, Senegal, May 1994
·African Insurance Organisation Conference, Harare, Zimbabwe, May 1993
·Insurance Directors and Top Executives Conference, Abuja, July 1992
·1st National Oil Directors Conference, Abuja, June 1992
·National Technical Course Workshop on Research Planning Techniques Organised by the Nigerian Institute of Social & Economic Research (NISER), Ibadan, August 1991.
·National Seminar on the Theme: Insurance Industry and Strategic Planning for the 1990s, September 1990
·Senior Management Appreciation Course, August 1990
·Supervisory Management Course, May 1990
·Export Finance Exhibition Organised by the Guardian Financial Weekly, April 1990.
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