Agnes Olatokunbo Martins

Mrs. Agnes ‘Tokunbo Martins is currently a doctoral researcher in Finance at the ICMA Centre, Henley Business School, University of Reading, United Kingdom. Her areas of specialism are banking reforms, microfinance, MSMEs and development.

Mrs. Martins worked at the Central Bank of Nigeria in various capacities for twenty-nine years. She was appointed as the Director of Banking Supervision in April 2012. Under her leadership, the banking industry witnessed tremendous progress toward best practice risk management and corporate governance as she drove the seamless introduction of the Basel II/III Capital Accord and the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) into the industry. The industry witnessed relative stability and growth as she oversaw the banking reforms that took effect in 2012. She held the position until December 2016 and is the first and only female to hold that position till date.

Mrs. Martins was later appointed as the Director of Other Financial Institutions Supervision, where she oversaw financial institutions that intermediate in the middle and lower tiers of the economy. She held the position until October 2019, when she retired. Her posting to OFISD was at an auspicious time when the country was exiting recession, and there was a renewed focus on economic recovery and growth through the MSME industry players.

Mrs. Martins obtained a bachelor’s degree in Economics and a master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Lagos, Nigeria. She also holds a first-class degree in Applied Accounting (Oxford Brookes University, United Kingdom); a master’s degree with distinction in Advanced Information Technology (London South Bank University, United Kingdom) and a master’s degree in Business Administration (University of Lagos). She is also an alumnus of the Harvard Kennedy School.

Mrs. Martins is a Fellow of both the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA, UK) as well as the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN). She is also a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers (CIBN), the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers and an Associate of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI), United Kingdom. She is a Certified Information Systems Auditor in addition to being a Certified Information Security Manager. She was the first female president of the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA) in Nigeria. She is a Certified Financial Risk Manager (FRM) of the Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP) and the Risk Managers Association of Nigeria (RIMAN).