Nigeria appoints former McKinsey partner to lead investment commission
President Bola Tinubu has named Eyitope Kola-Oyeneyin to head the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission, deploying deep private-sector and fintech expertise to revive foreign capital inflows.
President Bola Tinubu has appointed Eyitope Kola-Oyeneyin as Chairperson of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC). The agency serves as the primary vehicle for driving foreign direct investment into Africa's largest economy.
The appointment places a seasoned operator with over two decades of cross-sector experience at the helm of the country's investment promotion efforts. For international investors, the move signals a potential shift toward a more commercially driven approach to attracting capital.
Kola-Oyeneyin most recently founded Augmentum Advisory in 2024, a firm specializing in digital transformation and policy innovation. Prior to that, she spent more than six years as a Partner at McKinsey & Company. In that role, she co-led the Payments and FinTech Practice across Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
This fintech background aligns with a key growth area for Nigeria, where digital banking has rapidly expanded. Her tenure at McKinsey followed an earlier stint at the firm between 2004 and 2009. This provides her with extensive exposure to the operational expectations of global institutional investors.
Her commercial credentials are anchored in a nearly seven-year tenure at FirstBank Nigeria. There, she served as Group Head of International Banking, overseeing subsidiaries across South Africa, Abu Dhabi, and China. She also acted as Chief Integration Officer for Africa, managing acquisitions across six countries and previously overseeing operations across more than 750 branches nationwide.
Crucially for the NIPC mandate, Kola-Oyeneyin brings public sector experience from the Central Bank of Nigeria. She led the implementation of the Banking Industry Shared Services Programme and helped design the Cash-less Lagos initiative. She additionally drove the Shared Agent Network Expansion Facilities programme, a landmark financial inclusion effort.
Beyond executive roles, she has held board positions at FBNBank Senegal, FBNBank DRC, and AutoGenius, a digital insurance platform. She holds a Master of Science from Stanford University and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Central Florida. Her combined regulatory and private sector track record positions her to bridge the gap between policy design and investment execution.
