Yewande Sadiku assumed office as NIPC's Executive Secretary/CEO in November 2016, bringing a 23-year banking career to a role she describes as demanding an entirely different kind of discipline. In an in-depth interview with Arbiterz, she discusses leadership, governance reform, Nigeria's investment environment, and the personal convictions that have shaped her approach to public service.
"Someone told me recently that he thinks I am scared because I don't like doing many of the things people get away with in the public sector. My response was that I am not scared, I am just very careful — and there's a big difference between the two. People who are scared are afraid to take difficult decisions. People who are careful take the difficult decisions, after weighing the pros and cons."
On governance and transparency, she described NIPC's journey from ranking 116th out of 137 agencies on the Freedom of Information Act Compliance Index in 2016 to attaining 2nd place consecutively in 2019 and 2020. The improvements, she notes, were achieved entirely through internal commitment — without the help of an external consultant.
She attributed her unusual career trajectory — from Industrial Chemistry at the University of Benin to an MBA from the University of Warwick and a 23-year banking career at Citibank and Stanbic IBTC — as the foundation for approaching NIPC's mandate with a private-sector rigour that the public sector seldom applies. "Many times, I was pushing people beyond what they did not know they were capable of doing. I am really impressed that a good number of staff embraced the work," she said.
The full interview was originally published by Arbiterz.
