For the many times in a row, Mr. Kayode Pitan has proven to the world that 25 years-experience is no joke in the corporate and banking world. He is the current Managing Director of Nigeria’s oldest, largest and most successful Development Finance Institution, the Bank of Industry which recently exceeded N1 trillion in asset base. But, not just that, Kayode Pitan is an ordained pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God.
He has a distinguished career in the banking and financial industry.
Pitan cut his first tooth in the industry at Citibank Nigeria in 1986. He was the MD/CEO of Caroline Properties Ltd and Director of Excel E&P Ltd. He was also the Executive Director of Unity Bank Plc and MD at First Interstate Bank Plc.
He joined Industrial Bank Limited (Merchant Bankers) as part of the pioneer team in the role of Head, Trade Finance. He left the Bank in 1991 to run Credit Lease Nigeria Limited, a company founded by him to pursue his dream in the export business.
Mr. Pitan came back to the banking industry in 1996 by joining FSB International Bank Plc as AGM / Head of Middle Tier market and public sector. He later served as Group Head, Commercial and Consumer Banking Group. He also headed the Corporate Banking and Energy groups. He was promoted to Executive Director of the Bank and Managing Director of ENSEC (Energy division) in March 2001.
He graduated with a BSc (Hons) degree in Economics as a UAC scholar from the University of Ibadan in 1982. He obtained a Master’s degree in International Management as a Rotary International Scholar from the American Graduate School of International Management, Thunderbird Campus, Glendale, Arizona. He is an alumnus of Lagos Business School (SMP 5) and London Business School (SEP 43 ). He is also an alumnus of the Haggai Institute in Singapore. He is an ordained senior pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God.
The Bank of Industry, BOI, Nigeria’s foremost development finance institution set up to promote local industrialization which he supervises has never had it better, until Kayode Pitan emerged as the Managing Director of BOI.
At the Bank of Industry which he currently heads, he championed the Federal Government’s Social Investment Programme to reduce poverty and unemployment, and the bank’s asset base.
For the first time in the history of the bank, BOI surpassed N1 trillion in asset base. The group’s profit was over N36 billion. For a bank that is owned basically by the government, it is a very good result.
The Bank has achieved a 30 per cent increase N36.7 billion profit before tax, compared to the N26.4 billion made in 2017, representing;
BOI under Pitan’s historic leadership has also awarded N2 billion dividend to shareholders and maintained growth of the Group’s total assets by 49 per cent to N1.07 trillion from N713.3 billion in 2017. Also BOI has improved the total equity which increased by 12.5 per cent year-on-year to N258.3 billion from N241 billion in the previous year.
Under Olukayode Pitan’s era, BOI has recorded 130 per cent growth on a year-on-year basis with respect to disbursement of new loans of N259.6 billion in 2018 with N33.9 billion of the figure going to SMEs while the balance was deployed to support large enterprises.
An humble and extremely down to earth Pitan attributes his achievements to the unwavering support he got from the management and staff of the company and the parent ministry, the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment.
Under Pitan, BoI has recorded extraordinary feats through its financing intervention programmes such as Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises for food processing, agro processing, healthcare and petrochemicals, solid minerals, N-Power, creative industry, gender business.
The Organisation also recorded huge success through the ₦10billion fund targeted at entrepreneurs between 18 – 35 years. The scheme which was launched to develop the entrepreneurial capacity of youths and equip young people with the skills and knowledge to be self-employed by starting and managing their own businesses, was tagged Youth Enterprise Support (YES) Programme.
The Bank of Industry also introduced the TraderMoni product for micro-businesses across value chain clusters – motorcycle riders, food vendors and petty traders.
Other initiatives by the Kayode Pitan led Industry are Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP); $200million Nigerian Content Intervention Fund, targeted at indigenous players in the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry for the purpose of procuring fixed assets, funding working capital, refinancing existing loans, etc.
The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Clinics, which was floated in collaboration with the Office of the Vice President. The Bank also expects to generate over 4, 900 new jobs through the One-Local Government, One Product Programme.
Like the Vice President, Olukayode Pitan is also an ordained Pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God. As a Pastor, Kayode Pitan has a midas touch in church planting; developing and growing churches. The case of a parish of the Redeemed Christian Church of God of about 50 people, which he grew into over 1,000 – membership readily comes to mind. Under his leadership, the parish which was using rented spaces for service, bought land and built the imposing House of Prayer for all Nations at Banana Island, Ikoyi.
He is now the Pastor- in – Charge of Lagos Province 46, comprising over 89 parishes and membership of over 7,652, with headquarters in Ajah, Lagos.
He was a pioneer student of the RCCG – International Bible Institute and Leadership Training School in 1995. He formally joined the RCCG in March 1996 and became the Pastor in charge of Olive Tree Parish in Ikoyi in November 1996 when the pioneer pastor, (late Pastor Alfred Ogunfeyinmi) died in the ADC plane crash.
He is married to Pastor (Mrs) Olorunfemi Pitan a consultant Paediatrician and a Fellow of the National postgraduare Medical College. She is also a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Public Health (UK) and a Fellow of the Royal College of paediatrics and child Health (UK). She currently works with Chevron Nigeria Limited where she heads the Occupational Health Department at the Head office in Lekki.
