Simisola (Joseph) Ojumu has been appointed Executive Director, Technical at the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL Plc).
Ojumu is an investment banker and corporate finance professional with nearly two decades of experience spanning capital raising, transaction structuring, institutional sales, investment origination and the execution of financial transactions across banking, manufacturing and financial services.As Executive Director, Technical at NIRSAL, she will oversee technical functions and relationships involving agribusinesses and other participants in agricultural value chains, as well as banks and financial institutions.
Her experience is particularly relevant to NIRSAL’s role in addressing one of the longstanding constraints on agricultural investment in Nigeria: the difficulty of matching agricultural businesses with appropriate commercial financing while managing the risks associated with the sector.
From LeadCapital to NIRSAL
Ojumu began her investment banking career at LeadCapital Limited in January 2008 as an Analyst in Corporate Finance.
She spent about three years and nine months at the firm, rising to become a team lead for Issuing House activities. Her responsibilities included identifying and securing capital-raising and restructuring mandates and overseeing the preparation, packaging and marketing of public offers.
She subsequently joined WSTC Financial Services Limited in May 2012 as Senior Analyst, Institutional and Advisory Services.
At WSTC, she served as deputy team lead and helped increase client equity brokerage transactions by more than 30%. She also managed a $2 million institutional discretionary portfolio for a major insurance company.
Her work at WSTC extended beyond portfolio management. She prepared prospectuses, placement memoranda and rights circulars, liaised with regulators and participated in rights issues, private placements and mergers and acquisitions transactions valued at more than $53 million.
In March 2014, Ojumu moved to CardinalStone Partners Limited as Head of Institutional and Corporate Sales. She was responsible for developing and implementing the marketing strategy for the institutional and corporate sales team, with a focus on growing new business.
Building an Institutional Investor Network
Ojumu joined Renaissance Capital in April 2017 as Equity Sales, Nigeria, where she managed relationships with domestic and international investors.
During her roughly two years at the investment bank, she worked on major equity transactions on the Nigerian Stock Exchange valued at more than $100 million. She also led investor roadshows, meetings between investors and company management, and factory visits.
She coordinated Renaissance Capital’s annual conference in Nigeria, which brought together more than 100 investors and corporate representatives, while also contributing investment ideas and research products aimed at supporting brokerage income.
In February 2019, she joined Absa Group as Vice President, Equities and Fixed Income Sales.
She spent more than four years at Absa, leading equities and fixed-income sales in Nigeria. During the period, she raised more than $55 million for a range of corporate clients and executed more than $150 million in trades on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
Her role also involved coordinating thematic presentations, research roadshows and corporate-access programmes across African markets. She worked with teams covering administration, operations, research, risk, compliance and trading.
CapitalSage and the Move to NIRSAL
Ojumu became Managing Director, Investment Banking at CapitalSage Holdings Limited in August 2023.
CapitalSage is a group building global businesses from Africa with its portfolio including Johnvents Group, CapitalSage Technology and Regius Group.
At CapitalSage, Ojumu continued to operate in the investment-banking and corporate-finance space, building on her experience in capital mobilisation, transaction execution and institutional relationships.
Education and Professional Qualifications
Ojumu holds a degree in Finance from the University of Lagos and an MBA from Lagos Business School, Pan-Atlantic University.
She is an Authorized Dealing Clerk of the Nigerian Exchange Group and an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers of Nigeria.
She is also a member of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment in the United Kingdom.
About NIRSAL
NIRSAL was established in 2013 through a collaboration involving the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security and the Bankers’ Committee. The non-bank financial institution is mandated to reduce risks associated with lending to agriculture and facilitate the flow of affordable commercial finance to businesses across the agricultural value chain.
