As Gbeleyi Arrives BPE with Aplomb

Bassey Akpan

 Mr. Ayodeji Ariyo Gbeleyi arrived the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) in the morning of Monday, June 24, 2024, and after the handover formalities with his predecessor, then acting Director General of BPE, Mr. Ignatius Ayrwoh, he set out for business.

Staff of the privatisation agency were surprised that he called the Enterprise Business Review Forum(EBRF) which holds every Monday.

The EBRF is a review platform to unveil, scrutinise and interrogate transactions and activities of the Bureau that is physically attended by Directors and Heads of key units and virtually by other management and senior staff of the Bureau.What changed was that instead of starting at 10am, the forum was shifted to the afternoon of that day.

I called a friend around 2.32pm and he messaged me thus: “The new DG is giving us fire in EBRF.”

To which I responded, “Interesting. On Day One and he called EBRF?” And it was not a cosmetic meeting. From accounts of the attendees, it was not only fruitful but it was also an intellectual fest.The shock to the staff was Gbeleyi’s familiarity with the Bureau’s strategies and transactions.

Even transactions conducted over 15 years ago like the concession of the ports system into 26 port terminals operated by private companies. Even commercialisation is a topic he is comfortable with.

The discourse lasted till 5pm. At the end of the meeting, my friend summarised their encounter with Gbeleyi thus: “Honestly, the guy was on fire. He has a wealth of experience in both private and public sectors. We have not had a DG with such knowledge of transactions on Day One as the new DG.”

The press statement from the Presidency that announced Gbeleyi’s appointment on June 15, 2024 described him as a renowned financial expert and award-winning chartered accountant.

 According to Special Adviser to the President on Media & Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, the

the president, “expects the new Director-General to bring his vast experience and competence to bear in this role to strengthen the agency as the national resource centre for capacity building and sustenance of reforms through the promotion of a competitive private sector-driven economy, ensuring social accountability and efficient deployment of public resources, as well as advancing effective corporate governance and fiduciary discipline in the public and private sectors.”

A lawyer friend who knew Gbeleyi in the early 2000, when he was engaged with Lead Merchant Bank as Head of Treasury (when the bank was working on Lagos State Bond), described him as hard working and meticulous.

He was in the bank between 1988 and 2000. He then moved to Guardian Express Bank where he held the position of Assistant General Manager.

Between 2002 and 2008, Gbeleyi was in the employ of Celtel Nigeria (now Airtel), where he held several positions culminating as General Manager.

In 2008, he moved to the public sector as Director General of Lagos State Public Private Partnership(PPP) Office. Between 2013 and 2015, he was Lagos State Commissioner of Finance. In 2022, he was named Chairman of the Board of Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN)

In 2016, he also became Chairman of Axa Mansard Health. Until being named to the headship of BPE, he was Managing Partner of GA Capital –a bespoke financial advisory firm. The firm provides advisory services in public finance management, project finance, regulatory and compliance matters, PPP projects structuring, negotiation, financing, and implementation across both the private and public sectors.

A fellow of both the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN), he is an alumnus of executive programmes of   London Business School, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and Lagos Business School. He holds an MBA  from the University of Navarra (IESE), Spain.

He has broad skills-set and cross-functional expertise in Public Policy Making, Public Finance Management, Debt Sustainability Management, Public-Private Partnerships (PPP), Corporate Governance, Strategy Formulation, Project Finance, Treasury Operational Risks Management, Insurance Risk Management, Investment Banking, Asset Management, Financial Advisory, Multi-Stakeholders & Complex Project Management, Financial Reporting & Stewardship Accounting, Banking Operations and Auditing.

On Thursday, June 27, 2004, Gbeleyi held what insiders in the Bureau called a “town hall meeting” at Wells Carlton Hotel, Asokoro where staff ventilated their expectations of their new boss and he laid down his vision and plans for the reform agency of the central government. He tasked the staff  to work diligently as Nigerians look up to them to contribute their quota to pave the way for a more stable and prosperous economy.

Gbeleyi said the organisation has been entrusted with the reform of the nation’s public enterprises, which must be optimised for operational efficiency and excellence. He emphasised that the ultimate goal is to improve the standard of living for every Nigerian through the diligent implementation of the Bureau’s reform activities.

He urged the staff of the Bureau to be innovative and work as a team to meet the expectations of Nigerians. “We must realise that there are limits to what we can achieve as individuals, but endless possibilities lie ahead of us as a team,” he said.

According to him, there is need for the Bureau to fast-track the commercialisation and privatisation of some assets to add value to the nation’s economy. He highlighted  the optimisation of the National Integrated Power Projects (NIPP) to provide much-needed electricity and the revitalisation of the Bank of Agriculture to ensure food security as two key pursuits of his administration.

Akpan, a public policy analyst, writes from Lagos