Questions & Answers with Lloyd Onaghinon, GM, StanbicIBTC
Lloyd Eseosa Onaghinon is a General Manager and Head, Business Banking at StanbicIBTC Bank. The economics graduate of the University of Lagos and Masters degree holder from the prestigious Cranfield University, UK, is one of the most humble bankers I have ever come across. At 26, he was already the Financial Controller of a bank. In this exclusive interview with JarusHub founder, Suraj Oyewale, the 41-year-old investment banker and one of the shining stars of the Atedo Peterside School of Investment Banking, answers some questions on his career and life principles. Sit down and enjoy:
1, While making your presentation at the Jarushub Career Conference, you talked about having something or someone to hold on to as anchor, which could be God, personality or self, while establishing one’s career. How have these factors helped shaped your career and what are the lessons for Jarushubbers*?
God is my Anchor. I did mention at the presentation that God for me is unequivocally responsible for my achievements. The essence of mentioning Him first is that there are principles, laws and a way of life he expects from those who serve him. These principles give liberty or internal freedom. You do not want to achieve career growth/ success at the expense of all else. The up-coming generation should be willing to emulate the way your success was achieved. Being a Christian I seek to followed biblical principles in taking decisions and acting on behalf of my organization. You cannot go wrong when you are guided by principles that have been proven over thousands of years. Nothing is new under the earth. Take the example of savings and Joseph requesting that 20% of produce be saved for the future i.e. potentially investible and to be invested. Consider Christ stating that he who is faithful in managing a little will be given an opportunity to manage more.
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Lloyd Eseosa Onaghinon, FCA
2. It is quite unusual for someone with your qualifications and experience to be working in the same organization for over 15 years in Nigeria’s investment banking industry where it is not uncommon to find “hot cakes” like you switching jobs every 3 or 4 years. What has kept you at StanbicIBTC for this long?
I wonder myself. However apart from you understanding that there are certain environment you can thrive in you must also understand that whether you remain in a place or you switch, you would succeed. The beauty of my place of work is that the values I believe in determine how we organize our business. Secondly I have worked with great leaders who continue to depend on my expertise and encourage my development in the process. It has been mutually beneficial.
Also I have had the opportunity to change roles at each major cross roads in my career. As an example I have been the Financial Controller at the age of 26 among 87 banks in the country while being the leading Investment banking franchise and been given the opportunity to champion our project finance and private equity initiatives over the years.
Recently I moved back into the corporate lending world again. In other words I have been given the opportunity to be one of the few bankers that is experienced in deploying debt and equity. Typically banks just lend. In the process I have grown and honed my leadership capability working with small and large teams, sitting on boards to assist in directing strategic initiatives, managing risk asset portfolio, funds, and building relationships with clients in various ways. It has been interesting at every turn though challenging.
Lloys giving his presentation at JarusHub conference in Lekki, September 2013
3. You’ve held several positions at StanbicIBTC; from Head, Private Equity to Head, Multinational Corporates and presently Head, Business Banking. Which of these tasks have you enjoyed doing most and which would you consider to be the most challenging?
Hmmm. I enjoy deploying capital whether debt or equity. I found out that I also enjoyed supporting and growing businesses. All these roles have afforded me the opportunity to be creative and explore my inner strength while developing myself. It is good that I studied Economics, Accounting and subsequently Finance and management which allows for my creative juices to be brought to bear while exercising myself in the roles. I however believe that the opportunity to see companies grow especially in the PE world provides ife impacting lessons that I thank God for. 3 principles I now follow in any role was borne out of that experience and they remain a code for me. They are Alignment, Execution and Return on Invested Capital. In any role I ensure I follow these in achieving results
4. It is almost like a general consensus now that students are not being adequately trained in Nigerian Universities. Tell us about your experience at the University of Lagos and would you say you were adequately trained at UNILAG for the challenges you later encountered in coporate Nigeria?
Ecclesiastes counsels in Chapter 7 V10 that it is unwise to think that the past is better than the future. For every perceived deterioration in the educational system there is a corresponding life benefit. As an example while the strikes were on I got introduced to ICAN. I am both a Chartered Accountant and an Economist today. Back to Unilag, I believe that my set were lucky. Economics was delivered from a quantitative perspective as some of our leading lecturers had engineering background. This gave me the understanding beyond what the average economics graduate would experience. I understand economics from a scientific approach and statistical approach. I enjoy calculations and lecturers like Familoni, Fashola, Ojo, Bolodeoku challenged us to no end. They allowed us debate with them and learn even more.
I remember Fashola describing human relationship to God with a graph where the line is asymptotic to the line of origin and he says we can only be close to understanding God and it is only in infinity that the line meets (i.e. we have to live by faith as that is what will guarantee our eternity and a full realization of our potential). The professors in unilag were good and could hold their own. Even the younger lecturers then were very intelligent and demanded extra. I am blessed to have had that foundation which actually started with my secondary school Eric Moore High School where a Mr Akinyosoye got me interested in Economics with an understanding of the Marginal Concept. That is a discussion for another day.
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Lloyd Onaghinon admonishing participants at the 1st JarusHub Career Conference in September 2013
5. One of the commonest questions I receive on from Jarushub readers is on foreign degree. Now, you had your Master’s degree in Cranfield University, UK, one of the top 40 schools in the world, what do you thing about the fad among Nigerians of going abroad for their Master’s degrees? Does it mean Nigerian universities do not have the capacity to train world class professionals at that level?
Nigerian universities have the capacity to train the best or world class professionals. I went, I saw, I conquered because I had an excellent Nigerian training from Unilag and preparing for ICAN. The fact however is that the foreign universities invest in building their educational system and they leverage on delivery using technology. Also the lecturers come across as very supportive. Not once would you hear that “no one will graduate with a first class”. The schools know that if they develop successful students, it enhances their image. Nigerian universities need to be more strategic. However in terms of brains, Nigerian lecturers are as smart and many trained abroad too. It is about how we execute. We have not been historically good at that but it’s changing.
We have the new private Universities and even schools like Pan African University that are focused on similar values as the global institutions. In addition the corporate and graduates like myself, need to support the various faculties either with our skills and/or with resources. I learnt a lot from Cranfield University which is a strictly post graduate school/setting (one of the attractions for me) and has the oldest MBA program in the UK. Haven gone through the Finance and Management program with an Economics team that was once the No1 in the world, you can begin to imagine the benefits of the training.
On the issue of fad of going abroad, I have interviewed students from abroad and local universities and you know what, it is a function of what you put in. it however seems that training abroad gives you the ability to be better research focused as you are provided with those resources. Also plagiarism is a big thing there and you are tracked. Have you realized that many people who gained foreign accounting qualifications struggled to pass ICAN (at least in my time) until recently when they made it automatic? Let us always make the best out of what we have as we will always achieve progress in the process.
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Atedo Peterside, investment banking grandmaster, “caught” Lloyd and others young
6. It is no secret, especially for Jarushubbers that you and Akeem Oyewale, who also works at Stanbic IBTC, were recruited and mentored by the legendary Investment banker, Atedo Peterside. What was it like being mentored by such a legendary figure and what advice do you have for Jarushubbers regarding finding a career mentor?
Atedo’s mentorship came by interaction. It was not a deliberate process in us being selected. We were part of an organization that had decided to build a culture around business integrity and development of a unique knowledge base in certain areas of banking. The continuous weekly meeting with the whole firm became the training opportunity for people like Akeem and myself. In addition to that though Atedo who I had to report directly to after about 18 months of working in the organization at every opportunity he had contributed to your development.
As an example when I first joined the organization and I would be on the phone he insisted that I should be audible enough (not loud) for the next man to hear what I was saying as that brought transparency and professionalism in the communication except it was a confidential interaction. He would come to the office on a Saturday, sit in front of me and we would work on the budget for the better part of the day. He was very humble and loved you to know what you were talking about or doing which encouraged us to learn and train ourselves (though the organization also had a strict training curriculum contributed to by the staff himself).
StanbicIBTC Head Office
7. From my personal observation – and confirmed by a couple of friends that have worked under you in IBTC – you are such a humble personality that people will find it difficult to believe you’re a GM in a top bank. What inspires this quality in you, especially given the air of arrogance that is almost the hallmark of bankers in Nigeria?
Hmmmm, na you talk am o…LOL: Bros, I have been fortunate to work with leaders who have no airs around them e.g. Atedo, Sola D-B, Yinka Sanni and even my first Line manager Funke Iroegbunam. These people believed in treating everyone as a colleague. My first week in IBTC, Atedo told me that he employed me because of my expertise as an Accountant with an Economics background and that as the person in charge of Financial Control he would depend on me to bring that knowledge to bear. At no time was a decision taken that involved accounting treatment that he did not discuss with me then and he related with me on that basis and through all other roles similar treatment was what I received. There is no way I can now act differently as I have living models to imitate.
My Bible says be imitators of Christ and Christ was humble amongst other characteristics. This adds to having worked with humble leaders and related with humble colleagues. To end this I cannot really say I am humble. I can however tell you that I have grown to spot humility in the way other people act. My duty is to try to imitate such people. Maybe, just maybe people will find me humble one day.
8. Now, before you go, a quick one on your private life. You must have a very tight schedule considering you head a division of a top financial institution, how do you let your hair down?
Aahhhh. Nice question. I believe in exercise, reading different management and leadership books amongst others, I like and enjoy dancing, I sing in the choir, I go to the movies with my wife and take the kids out atimes (have to do more of this), I chat and look for trouble chatting (LOL) and spend time cultivating my future (visualizing, planning thinking of solutions, looking for the next “hot challenge” in the office) etc
Thank you for your time.
*Jarushub readers style themselves Jarushubbers.
Other exclusive interviews on Jarushub:
Nuhu Ribadu: Former presidential candidate, Federal Republic of Nigeria
Pius Adesanmi – Ace columnist and Professor of English and African Studies, Carleton University, Canada.
Niyi Yusuf – Chief Executive Officer, Accenture Nigeria.
Olusegun Adeniyi – Former Special Adviser to late President Umaru Yar’adua on Media and Communication and currently editorial Board Chairman, Thisday newspaper.
Farooq Kperogi – respected grammar columnist and university don
Opeyemi Agbaje – leading financial expert and former Executive Director, Metropolitan Bank
Nimi Akinkugbe – Former GM & Head, Private Client Services, StanbicIBTC
Taiwo Oyedele – Partner, Tax & Corporate Advisory Services, PwC Nigeria
Abimbola Adelakun – Columnist, Punch newspaper
I am intrigued by your story and how much you have achieved at your age. I am glad you are a fellow Akokite.. More power to do more exploit IJN!