Former General Manager and Division Head, Investment Banking West Africa, Rand Merchant Bank Nigeria Limited
Lagos, Nigeria
Aishetu’s passion for global finance began in the equities division of Goldman Sachs on the international desk in New York. She went on to work for a USAID-funded project with the Nigerian government in its privatization program. She worked closely with President Obasanjo and his economic team of cabinet ministers in crafting the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy, which drove several successful reforms including the $18 billion Paris Club debt write-off.
Her passion for demonstrable development impact and understanding the intersection of the public and private sectors ability to stimulate economic growth led her to the World Bank in Washington, DC, where she focused on financing businesses in the manufacturing, infrastructure, and service sectors in regions such as Central and South America, Eastern Europe, and Eastern Africa.
Aishetu has worked for Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley, Standard Chartered Bank, and Rand Merchant Bank as a senior investment banking executive, having closed $130 billion in M&A, financing, and capital markets transactions. Over the past decade, she’s lived in New York, Johannesburg, London, and Lagos.
She founded a first-of-its-kind children’s play and activity center in Lagos and authored a children’s picture book entitled “Paloo & Friends in Imaginaria”. Aishetu loves writing and is a contributing columnist with Business Day Newspaper. She currently lives in Nigeria with her husband and three superhero sons.
Aishetu holds a BA from Cornell University, a MBA from the Harvard Business School, and participated in the Leaders in Development Program at the John F. Kennedy School at Harvard University.