Tinubu appoints Ayo Sotinrin as MD Bank of Agriculture

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has appointed Mr. Ayo Sotinrin as the new Managing Director of the Bank of Agriculture. Sotinrin will take over from Alwan Ali Hassan, a seasoned banker who was appointed by former President Muhammadu Buhari in May 2020. The Bank of Agriculture is a development bank that provides credit facilities to both […]

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has appointed Mr. Ayo Sotinrin as the new Managing Director of the Bank of Agriculture.

Sotinrin will take over from Alwan Ali Hassan, a seasoned banker who was appointed by former President Muhammadu Buhari in May 2020.

The Bank of Agriculture is a development bank that provides credit facilities to both small and large scale farmers and small businesses within rural areas. The bank was formed in 2000 and assumed the assets of the National Agriculture and Cooperative Bank, People’s Bank and the Family Economic Advancement Project.

Before Sotinrin appointment, he held the position of Group Chief Executive Officer at SAO Group. His leadership at SAO Agro, an agribusiness company, was marked by agricultural initiatives, including developing a 20,000-hectare oil palm plantation, large-scale poultry and boosting cassava operations in Ondo State.

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Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, in a statement disclosed that the new MD also led SAO Capital, raising over $750 million in infrastructure and development finance, including the landmark $200 million Akure Water Supply Project.

He said Sotinrin’s appointment aligns with the Tinubu administration’s strategy to revitalise Nigeria’s agricultural sector.

“Mr Sotinrin’s proven ability to mobilise capital, innovate in agribusiness, and collaborate across sectors will be instrumental in repositioning the Bank of Agriculture as a catalyst for food security, sovereignty and rural prosperity”, the statement emphasised.

What to know about Ayo Sotinrin

Ayo Sotinrin is an ardent environmentalist turned development finance expert with a major interest in infrastructure development. After over a decade working in the finance and investment sector, he founded SAO Capital in 2015.

He has 16 years work experience which cuts across different sectors in more than 10 countries.

Educationally, he holds an Executive MBA from the University of Oxford, a Masters in Engineering Business Management from the University of Warwick and an Advanced Diploma in Environmental Conservation.

He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration. He has worked with many senior level heads of government agencies in Africa, especially Nigeria, where he is currently an advisor to a number of state governments on investments and multilateral relations.

He also worked as the LEAD Environmental Safeguard Specialist at the World Bank PPP Unit under the Federal Ministry of Finance for five years, before then, at the Presidency-Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission ($115m World Bank Funded PPP infrastructure development programme) developing infrastructure concessions in sectors such as Transportation, Power, Water, Aviation, and Agriculture.

Prior to that Sotinrin was engaged as the Lead consultant -Planning Monitoring and Evaluation by Deloitte Arlington USA on the Nigeria Expanded Trade and Transport Program (NEXTT) funded by USAID, in that role Ayo worked with 6 departments in the Ministry of Industry Trade and Investment and also Heads of all agriculture and manufacturing association in Nigeria.