Professor Gbenga Ibikunle: financial force for good

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As all teenagers do, Gbenga Ibikunle covered the walls of his bedroom with posters of his idols. There was the usual smattering of footballers – stars of the Nigerian national men’s side, the Super Eagles - but they were crowded out by titans of finance, the very many posters of whom weren’t really posters at all, but carefully torn out covers of Forbes magazine, to which Gbenga subscribed. While his friends were reading comics or outside playing five-a-side, Gbenga was reading the Economist. Although a deep fascination with economics is unusual in a child, it’s immensely reassuring to know that the University’s Chair of Finance at the University of Edinburgh Business School, and the Director for Industry, Economy and Society at the Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI), lives and breathes the field he works in.

Gbenga grew up in Abeokuta, which was then a small city in southwest Nigeria. His father worked away in Lagos for the Nigeria Customs Service, so his mother looked after him and his sister by herself most of the time. As a way of keeping her older child occupied, Gbenga’s mother would give him books to read while she tended to his younger sister, unwittingly lighting a fire in her son that would set him up perfectly for a future career in research.

I read anything I could get my hands on, as long as it was written in English I read it, it didn’t matter what it was about. And, in later years in high school, if I couldn’t find anything fun to read I read a series of Colliers encyclopaedia in my school library.

When Gbenga started school at age six he was already a prolific reader, but he initially struggled with numbers, even writing them. His class teacher met with his mother and offered to tutor Gbenga privately to help him close the gap. Tutoring allowed him to quickly catch up with his peers, but the fact that he’d needed some additional help at the start planted the seed in young Gbenga’s mind that he needed to work harder than the other kids just to keep up. He did work hard, so that by the end of his first year at primary school Gbenga was top of his class, and a frequent winner of class prizes. A strong work ethic had taken root.

Gbenga continued to read voraciously, often staying up all night to finish books that had been loaned to him by his friends’ older siblings before having to return them the next day. But books couldn’t tell Gbenga was happening in the world that very moment, so his mother (unaware that he’d then be up all night with yet another book) would often allow him to stay up past his bedtime to watch the Nigerian Television Authority’s nine o’clock news. The politicians and policy-makers on TV seemed to Gbenga committed to helping improve society, and he wanted to do the same somehow.

While he didn’t know exactly what he wanted to do when he grew up, Gbenga’s interests and talents drew him towards economics, finance and social studies. Unfortunately, the way in which the Nigerian school system was set up meant that the brightest pupils were automatically filtered into the sciences. As a developing country aiming to grow its economy, it made sense to push the best-performing pupils towards careers in science, technology and engineering, but it left little room for the less scientifically inclined to pursue their passions. Gbenga did what was expected of him and studied the sciences, but he was also allowed to pick one class from the remaining subjects, and he chose economics. “I wasn't just studying economics, I was living it,” he says. “I loved it, and it wasn't just because it had mathematical elements, but because the real socio-political aspects of it spoke to me as well. So I did very well.” So well in fact that Gbenga ended his senior year as the top performing student in economics across the entire school.

Gbenga hoped that he might find his way back to economics at some point, but in the meantime he moved forward with his education, enrolling at the Yaba College of Technology in Lagos. His enjoyment of chemistry and physics led him to pursue an undergraduate degree in food technology, and he liked the idea of working for one of the big food and drink multinationals like Cadbury or Nestlë. He found himself inching towards a career in management, and after graduation Gbenga took on two mid-level managerial positions in quick succession, before being offered a senior managerial role three years later at a fast-growing fast-food company Mega Chicken, where he was responsible for a staff of over 200. Suspecting that he’d been given the job over more experienced candidates because he outperformed in the interview, Gbenga had to quickly pull together a management style from his limited experience, books, and inspiration from some of his heroes such as Mo Ibrahim and Sun Tzu. He would psych himself up ahead of work each morning so he could go in and command the respect of his workforce – not an easy task as a 26 year-old in a culture that values the wisdom and experience of age. With some luck, Gbenga’s studied approach work yielded results, and in their very first year the company recorded a turnover in excess of the equivalent of £1 million.

The 2008 financial crash presented Gbenga with an unexpected opportunity. Having maintained a keen interest in the financial markets, he saw the Naira grow strong against the British pound and realised that this was his chance to spend a year studying abroad. Knowing that his earning potential and career prospects would be enhanced by a Masters qualification, Gbenga converted all of his savings into sterling and researched courses in the UK. He was looking for one that would allow him to transition from his scientific background into focusing on Finance, and the University of East Anglia’s (UEA) MBA in business administration fit the bill.

Gbenga excelled in his Masters programme and his supervisor, Professor Andros Gregoriou, saw his potential and suggested a PhD. Gbenga had never considered this, a job was being held for him back in Lagos and a return to management was the plan, but he couldn’t stop thinking about the idea. So how did he decide? In characteristic fashion: with books and a costing exercise. He read several books and articles on the art of writing a PhD thesis, to make sure that he had what it took to complete the course. Then he ran a costing on a purchasing power parity basis, measuring the value of the funded studentship he’d been offered against his projected earnings over the same period at Mega Chicken.

That is the way I made I make decisions even now. I try to think of whatever it is in financial terms first, then I look at the other factors afterwards. With my training it comes with the territory.

Gbenga spent his PhD assessing the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, a cornerstone of the EU's policy to combat climate change that aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by incentivising companies to pollute less and to invest in low carbon technology. Looking at the market from the microstructure perspective, Gbenga sought to understand economic agents’ motivations and would later use his insights to propose a downstream market that could force people to spend in a way that would help address climate change. By the time he completed his PhD, his research had generated interest from EU policymakers, such as officials from the office of the European Commissioner for Climate Action (Connie Hedegaard, 2010 to 2014). The experience strengthened his belief that academic research is at its most potent when it holds relevance for the real world.

Gbenga describes his decision-making process as “cold” and maintains that he’s never factored emotion into decisions about his career; but Edinburgh may have proved to be the exception to that rule. Towards the end of his PhD he took a day trip to Edinburgh and instantly warmed to the city. “I loved the place immediately and said to myself that I should find a way to work there one day”, he says. Soon after he saw an advert for a lecturer position at the University of Edinburgh’s Business School and applied, despite having already accepted an offer from another institution. When the offer from Edinburgh came through, was his decision purely strategic? “There was an emotional element to it I suppose,” he admits. “But I think I probably wouldn't have backed out from the other position if not for the fact that Edinburgh is a highly respected, world class university. I was cold enough to think of it in terms of what was best for my career, and I haven't regretted it. It’s been one of the most inspired decisions I've ever made.”

In the ten years that Gbenga has been at the University he has made a significant impact. In 2018 he took on the role of Director for Industry, Economy and Society at EFI and developed the institute’s flagship Fintech Masters and PhD programmes. Industrial collaboration is a vital element of both courses, with an emphasis on creating positive change through innovation. In 2020 he became Professor and Chair of Finance, leading on fintech and financial services initiatives at the University for DDI, part of the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal. He also consults and takes on research projects with industry partners, as a way of both furthering his own research interests and keeping a foot in the door of the corporate finance world.

Under Gbenga’s direction the University of Edinburgh is fast becoming the leading destination for talent acquisition and research in Fintech, and there are plans for further growth. The current fintech and financial services research clusters at the University are soon to be transformed into the Centre for Financial Innovations, which is scheduled for launch in September 2023 and will be hosted at EFI with support from Edinburgh Innovations (EI).

The University of Edinburgh has to be part of the conversation about fintech now. We’re able to be one of the strong players because we have colleagues in EI. The decision to have an apparatus like EI to support the way we engage with the outside world is an inspired one.

The Centre for Financial Innovations a momentous project, and one that Gbenga will need to juggle alongside another very important role he’s soon to take on: fatherhood. Personal and professional adventures await, and Gbenga is ready to embark upon them all with determination, positivity and, of course, several books.