President Bola Tinubu has named Opeyemi Agbaje, a former Executive Director at Guaranty Trust Bank, as Chairman of the National Pension Commission (PenCom), following a seven-day ultimatum issued by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) demanding the reconstitution of the commission’s governing board.
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The union had warned that it would embark on nationwide strike action if the government failed to address the matter.
The NLC has for years criticised successive administrations for leaving the PenCom board vacant, contending that the absence of a governing council compromises accountability in the management of trillions of naira in pension assets.
Mr Agbaje brings to the role over four decades of multidisciplinary professional experience across law, banking, finance, academia and consulting. Widely regarded as a thought-leader in business, economy and policy, he has combined careers in corporate leadership, teaching, and advisory services.
He earned a law degree with honours from the then University of Ife in 1985 and was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1986. He later obtained a Master of Laws (LLM) from the University of Lagos in 1989, followed by an MBA from IESE Business School in Spain in 1997, and is currently concluding a Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA) from Eaton Business School.
Mr Agbaje began his career in the 1980s at the law firm of Kola Awodein & Co (SAN) and subsequently joined the legal department of First Bank of Nigeria Plc. In 1990, he became a foundation staff member of Guaranty Trust Bank, rising to Assistant General Manager within eight years and later to Executive Director before voluntarily exiting the banking industry in 2004.
Since leaving mainstream banking, he has served as Founder and Chief Executive of RTC Advisory Services Ltd, an indigenous consultancy focusing on economic policy, strategy and organisational transformation. Alongside this, he taught business strategy and The Environment of Business at Lagos Business School from 1999, serving as Senior Fellow (equivalent to Associate Professor) and Head of the Strategy and Entrepreneurship Department, and he continues to lecture at the institution.
He is also recognised for his contributions to public discourse, having written the widely followed Economy, Polity, Society column in BusinessDay from 2006 to 2019, and produced and hosted the policy-centred television programme The Policy Council on Channels TV between 2011 and 2015.
Mr Agbaje’s public service record includes two terms on the board of the Lagos State Security Trust Fund from 2011 to 2019, as well as a stint as Chief Executive of the Ogun State Security Trust Fund from 2019 to 2021. He has also studied the evolution of Nigeria’s contributory pension system closely, serving as Principal in charge of Asset Management and Pensions at Capital Alliance in 2005, where he worked on investment opportunities in the emerging pension sector.
Away from his professional commitments, he is married with adult children, a Knight of John Wesley (KJW) in the Methodist Church, and a philanthropist known for his modest approach to service.