CBN Approves Olagunju to Lead JPMorgan’s Proposed Nigerian Merchant Bank

The Central Bank of Nigeria has granted JPMorgan approval-in-principle to establish a merchant bank in Nigeria. The regulator also approved Adedapo Adedayo Olagunju as Managing Director of the proposed JPMorgan Merchant Bank Nigeria Limited. The approval came on Friday, October 23, 2026. The bank has not received its final operating licence.

Olagunju has led JPMorgan’s West African operations since 2018. He is an Oxford-trained banker with more than two decades of experience in treasury management, financial markets, institutional banking and structured finance. His appointment puts him in line to head the American bank’s proposed Nigerian merchant bank once final licensing is completed.

Broad Approval

The CBN also approved four non-executive directors and three independent non-executive directors for the proposed institution. The proposed bank would expand JPMorgan’s presence beyond its representative office in Lagos. It could undertake a broader range of regulated banking activities after securing a final licence. JPMorgan is seeking to deepen its engagement with Nigeria’s financial markets, corporate clients and financial institutions.

Olagunju disclosed JPMorgan’s plans to establish a merchant bank in Nigeria on October 8, 2026, during the Nigeria-Asia Financial Connectivity Dialogue in Singapore. The event involved the CBN, Nigerian Exchange Group and FMDQ Group. He joined JPMorgan in January 2018 as Managing Director responsible for its West African business.

Career Across Banking

Olagunju graduated from Ogun State University, now Olabisi Onabanjo University, in 1998 with a bachelor’s degree in Banking and Finance. He qualified as a chartered accountant in 1999 and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria. He is also an Honorary Senior Member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria.

He earned a Master of Business Administration from the University of Oxford in 2005. In 2014, he completed Harvard Business School’s General Management Programme. His interest in education developed alongside a childhood ambition to become an astronaut. In a May 2019 interview, he recalled how difficulties finding a suitable aeronautical engineering course in Nigeria redirected his academic plans. He also pursued accounting partly to make productive use of university breaks caused by industrial actions and student demonstrations that disrupted academic activities in the 1990s.

His banking career began at Investment Banking & Trust Company, IBTC, which later became part of Stanbic IBTC. He served as Chief Dealer from January 2000 to March 2003. He joined Access Bank as Treasurer in 2003 before briefly working with the United Nations in New York in 2006, contributing to its peacekeeping financing operations.

He returned to Access Bank in September 2006 and served as Group Treasurer until January 2018. His responsibilities included balance sheet management, fixed-income securities and foreign exchange markets. In January 2017, he became Head of Global Markets, overseeing Treasury, Financial Institutions, and Project and Structured Finance. After nearly 15 years associated with Access Bank, he joined JPMorgan in January 2018.

JPMorgan earlier appointed former CBN acting governor Sarah Alade as an independent director of its proposed Nigerian merchant bank. Alade served as acting governor in 2014 following the suspension of then governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi. She spent 24 years at the CBN and served as President Muhammadu Buhari’s economic adviser.

What It Means

For Nigeria’s financial market, the approval-in-principle signals deeper foreign bank participation in merchant banking and corporate finance. The final licence will determine how much JPMorgan can do beyond its Lagos representative office. Olagunju’s career began in Nigeria’s investment banking industry more than 26 years ago.