177 million Naira: The estimated amount of money Sola David-Borha earns annually, approximately 484,931 Naira daily, even on days when she does nothing earning her a place as the highest paid Chief Executive Officer in Nigeria.
Behind this extraordinary sum of money is an extraordinary female banker, Sola David-Borha, who has displayed outstanding abilities over the years, earning her every bit of this sum. She’s more than deserving.
Sola holds a B.Sc. Economics degree from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. She also holds an MBA from The Manchester Business School, United Kingdom and her executive educational experience includes the Advanced Management Programme of the Harvard Business School.
On how she ended up on this path and began her journey, Sola says,
“I knew what I didn’t want to do in life. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. I didn’t want to do Medicine, though my father wanted me to do it. I stumbled upon Economics and went down that path. When I was studying in Manchester, I did some courses in Banking and Finance which was quite interesting.
I wanted to come back to Nigeria. I had no interest in staying on in the UK. When I came back, my sister had a friend who worked in NAL Merchant Bank. That friend happened to be Mr. Atedo Peterside. So she arranged an appointment for me to go and talk to him and chat with him, talk about career prospects. I subsequently applied for a job there among other banking institutions I was applying to; and I got a job and started work in the credit and marketing department of NAL Merchant Bank. NAL was the pioneer merchant bank in Nigeria, at the time.”
Between 1984 – 1989, Sola worked in the Credit and Marketing department of NAL Merchant Bank Plc.
Sola David-Borha’s long history at Stanbic IBTC began when current Chairman, Atedo Peterside, asked her to join the Investment Banking and Trust Company, as one of its foundation staff in the late 1980s. Atedo Peterside had formed Investment Banking and Trust Company PLC (IBTC) as an investment bank on February 2, 1989.
After a series of mergers and acquisitions starting in 2005, including an effective acquisition of IBTC by South Africa’s Standard Bank Group in 2007, the company renamed itself to Stanbic IBTC Holdings in September 2007. Additionally, at the time, South Africa’s Standard Bank was looking to expand its business in Nigeria.
Prior to 2007, when it was acquired by Standard Bank Group, Sola worked as an Executive Director at IBTC Chartered Bank Plc. She served as Chief Executive of Stanbic IBTC Bank (a product of the merger) from May 2011 to November 2012.
Sola served as CEO for Stanbic IBTC Holdings, a full service financial services Group with subsidiaries in Commercial Banking, Investment Banking, Pension and Non-Pension Asset from 2012 to 2017. She also served as Deputy Chief Executive of the Bank and Head of Investment Banking Coverage Africa (excluding South Africa).
Sola David-Borha now has over 30 years’ experience in the financial services industry.
Sola David-Borha says that her quick rise to the top was encouraged early on because IBTC chose to be different. “In IBTC, we actually had women in senior positions, so we were an outlier to the industry,” recalls Sola.
According to Sola David-Borha, her biggest achievement was being part of a management team that grew IBTC into one of the leading financial services players in Nigeria.
Sola David-Borha resigned her appointment as the chief executive officer (CEO) of Stanbic IBTC Holdings PLC late January of 2017 to become the Chief Executive Officer, Rest of Africa, Standard Bank Group. Stanbic IBTC Holdings is a member of Standard Bank Group.
In 2016, Sola was singled out as the All Africa Business Woman of the Year at the All Africa Business Leaders Awards in Partnership with CNBC Africa.
She is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers (CIBN) and currently the Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG). She is also a member – Governing Council of the Redeemer’s University of Nigeria (RUN), and an associate Pastor at RCCG, City of David Parish.
Sola’s career has been on a constant rise, showing us that the sky is only the limit and even women rise to the top. She has over and over again proven herself, fulfilling purpose every step of the way.
