My Most Outstanding Personality of the Week: Chief Bimbo Roberts Folayan MBCS CITP Chief Bimbo Roberts Folayan is the Chairman of the Central Association of Nigerians in the United Kingdom, (CANUK). CANUK is the umbrella organisation of the hundreds of Nigerian professional, cultural, states, welfare based and social organisations in the UK and he is the head of the entire Nigerian community in the UK. He has garnered a tremendous amount of all round experience in private and public sectors both in Nigeria and in the United Kingdom. A graduate of the University of Ife, he later participated in a M.Sc. Conversion programme at Greenwich University (UK) in Information Systems and Computing. Bimbo holds the British Computer Society (MBCS) Chartered IT Professional (CITP) status amongst several other qualifications too numerous to mention. Based in the UK, he currently works as an Independent IT specialist in Europe and is the organiser of the Nigerian Diaspora Direct Investment Summit. He worked with the Guardian Newspapers and was a publisher of a UK based tabloid called ‘The Main Issue’. Bimbo is an African with a rare social conscience who has initiated, participated in and executed various activities and ventures with others with the aim of promoting democracy, good governance and the development of the Diasporan community. Before leaving Nigeria, he was a pioneer staff of the ‘Peoples Bank of Nigeria’ and worked closely with its Chairman and Managing Director Pa Tai Solarin and Mrs Maria Sokenu respectively in disbursing small-scale loans to Nigerians in the 1990s. As the Programme Manager of the Bank, Bimbo was responsible for setting up of bank branches, centres and the disbursement of micro business credit for local communities in some parts of Nigeria between 1989 and 1991. He later worked as a Financier and midwifed the creation of Treasury and Finance Company/Mortgage bank after the liberalisation of the banking sector in 1992. His IT consultancy in the UK has seen him participate in several bank and telecommunication merger projects across the UK and parts of Europe. Bimbo’s clientele include Ulster Bank, IBM, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Marks & Spencer, Royal Bank of Scotland, NatWest Bank, Halifax Bank and Bank of England amongst several others. He was part of the team that completed the harmonisation and re-branding of NTL, Telewest, and Virgin Telecoms (Virgin Media) and also the merger of Natwest Bank with other financial institutions with the Royal Bank of Scotland brand. He is the senior partner of ABN Limited based in the UK. He is an idea generator and was the Chairman of the Ekiti Economic and Investment Forum (EEIF), an Economic and Development think tank, President of the Association of Nigerian IT Professionals in the UK (ANITP), member of the National Think Tank in Nigeria, Diaspora UK nominee to the Nigeria Vision 202020 board and was the Chairman of the Main Events Task Force of the Nigeria @ 50 celebrations in London and is now the Executive Director, J Williamz Ltd, the organisers of the Nigerian Direct Diaspora Investment Summit. He holds 2 traditional chieftaincy titles: Serikin Yakin (King of War) of Kagara Town, Niger State Garkin Kowan Pada (Member of Emirs Palace) of Kotangora town, Niger State Sources: nigeriadiasporaday/index.php/about/the-speakers/50-bimbo-roberts-folayan-mbcs-citp
Posted on: Wed, 26 Mar 2014 07:43:48 +0000
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