NIRSAL appoints Babajide Arowosafe as CEO, inaugurates new board

Nigerian Incentive-based Risk Sharing System of Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) has appointed Babajide Arowosafe as its managing director (MD) and chief executive officer (CEO).

NIRSAL, a non-bank financial institution owned by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), was created to redefine, measure, re-price and share agribusiness-related credit risks in Nigeria.

The development comes two weeks after CBN terminated the appointments of the board and executive directors of NIRSAL.

The affected executives are Abbas Umar Masanawa, CEO and MD of NIRSAL; Kennedy Nwaruh, executive director of operations; and Olatunde Akande, executive director, technical.

In a statement on Wednesday by Jude Nnadozie, head of corporate communications at NIRSAL, the bank also announced a new board.

“Following the reconstitution of the board of directors of NIRSAL Plc, the new board members were inaugurated at the 21st meeting of the Board of Directors held on Tuesday,” the company said.

“The Board noted the need to refocus NIRSAL Plc back to its core mandate of de-risking agricultural lending.”

The board members include Muhammad Abdullahi, CBN deputy governor, economic policy, as NIRSAL chairman; Mallam Ado Wanka, non-executive director; Daphne Dafinone, non-executive director; Hamidu Sa’ad, non-executive director; Bankole Allibay, non-executive director; and Shehu Balarabe, non-executive director.

NIRSAL said Arowosafe is a development finance expert with experience from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Ekiti State Government, and Southwest Agric Company (SWAgCo).