Access Bank’s Chairman, Dere Awosika, Has nicely Navigated the Public and Private Sectors

It is not really unusual to see some former government workers going back to work in the private sector shortly after retirement. However, it becomes something noteworthy when a former civil servant, who retired as a permanent secretary, ends up becoming the board Chairman of the largest bank in Sub-Saharan Africa. This is exactly what happened in the case of Mrs Ajoritsedere Josephine Awosika, the current Chairman of Access Bank Plc.

How it happened

Towards the end of 2019, Access Bank Plc sent a disclosure to the Nigerian Stock Exchange announcing the appointment of Mrs Ajoritsedere Josephine Awosika as its new Chairman. She was to replace Mrs Mosun Belo-Olusoga, another accomplished Nigerian woman whose 12-year tenure as Chairman of Access Bank Plc had come to an end.

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Now, here’s the interesting thing – the fact that Mrs Awosika’s appointment was happening approximately seven years after she retired from the Federal Civil Service in 2013. Prior to her retirement from the government, she got to serve as a Permanent Secretary at both the Federal Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Federal Ministry of Science & Technology, and the Federal Ministry of Power. She was also National Coordinator of the National Programme on Immunisation, served as a Director at the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, and was the Director of the Department of Community Relations & Youth Development at the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs.

Her Journey to Corporate Nigeria

Mrs Awosika’s journey to becoming Access Bank’s Chairman actually began in April 2013 when she joined the company’s board of directors as a Non-Executive Director. Around the same time, she was also admitted into the board of Chams Plc, a Nigerian information technology company headquartered in Lagos. She would later go on to become Chams Plc’s board Chairman in January 2019, a position she resigned from merely one year later just so she could focus mainly on her Access Bank chairmanship role…

EDITOR’S NOTE: Read the entire piece on Joomag. It’s on page 41 of our 50 Most Influential Women in Business edition. Follow this link.