Omolola Oloworaran is alleged not statutorily qualified to be the director-general of the National Pension Commission (PenCom).
This is barring any amendment to the Pension Reform Act, 2014 before her confirmation hearing by the senate.
Announcing the appointment on Saturday, Ajuri Ngelale, the presidential media aide, described Oloworaran as a “finance and banking expert with many years of experience”.
In a report monitored in The Cable however, there are questions as to whether Oloworaran’s qualifications and experience align with the prescriptions of the Pension Reform Act (PRA) 2014.
Section 26 (1) of the PRA 2014 empowers the president to appoint the director-general of the agency, stating that such appointment will be subject to the confirmation of the senate.
However, section 26 (2)(d) of the act, stipulates that the director-general must “possess a relevant and adequate professional qualification in pension matters with 15 years cognate experience”.
In the last 20 years, Oloworaran’s career path in the private sector has been in the financial industry.
According to her LinkedIn profile, her career has cut across various companies: Renaissance Capital, FDHL GROUP, Stanbic IBTC and First Bank.
Between June 2004 and March 2008, Oloworaran worked at treasury operations, Citi Group, before joining Renaissance, where she rose through the ranks from the position of a senior specialist to finance manager.
Oloworaran left Renaissance in April 2013 to join FDHL Group, where she had a short stint as a consultant — exiting in November of the same year to join Stanbic IBTC as head of global market operations.
Three years later, she became Stanbic IBTC’s head of the international business centre, but left the company for First Bank of Nigeria (FBN) in June 2009 to serve as head of transaction banking operations.
According to her profile on the FBN website, she is the group head of First Shared Services.
From the findings, Oloworaran does not have the requisite experience contained in the PRA to head PenCom.