Chief Adebayo Olawale Edun, commonly known as Wale Edun, is a Nigerian economist, investment banker and politician who is the minister of finance and coordinating minister of the economy since August 2023. He was appointed the Chairman of the African Governors’ Forum of the World Bank in 2023. He is the first Nigerian to occupy this position in 60 years.

Education

Edun holds bachelor's and master's degrees in economics from the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

and the

University of Sussex The University of Sussex is a public university, public research university, research university located in Falmer, East Sussex, England. It lies mostly within the city boundaries of Brighton and Hove. Its large campus site is surrounded by the ...

respectively.

Career

From 1980 to 1986, Edun worked at Chase Merchant Bank (later Continental) in Lagos, Nigeria. He joined the World Bank in September 1986 through the elite Young Professionals program, where he worked on economic and financial packages for several countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. In 1989, he co-founded Investment Banking & Trust Company Limited (now Stanbic IBTC) and served as executive director. In 1994, he founded Denham Management Limited, which has since become the Chapelhill Denham Group; he served as chairman there from 2008 to 2021.

Political career

In 1999, he was appointed Lagos State commissioner of finance by then governor,

Bola Tinubu Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Adekunle Tinubu (born 29 March 1952) is a Nigerian politician serving as the 16th and current president of Nigeria since 2023. He previously served as the governor of Lagos State from 1999 to 2007, and senator for Lagos ...

, a position he held until 2004. He was the chairman of the governing council and the board of trustees of the Trust Fund for the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) for the implementation of the United Nations Environmental Report (UNEP) on Ogoniland. On 16 August 2023, President

appointed him minister of finance and coordinating minister of the economy. He was sworn in on 21 August 2023.

Personal life and philanthropy

Himself a direct descendant of the Egba official Adegboyega Edun, Edun is married to Amy Adwoa Appiah, a daughter of the Ghanaian statesman

Joe Appiah Joseph Emmanuel Appiah, MP ( ; 16 November 1918 – 8 July 1990)Eric Pace"Joe Appiah Is Dead; Ghanaian Politician And Ex-Envoy, 71" ''The New York Times'', July 12, 1990. was a Ghanaian lawyer, politician and statesman. Biography He was born ...

and his British wife

Peggy Cripps Enid Margaret "Peggy" Appiah (''née'' Cripps), MBE ( ; 21 May 1921 – 11 February 2006), was a British children's author, philanthropist and socialite. The youngest daughter of the Rt Hon. Sir Stafford and Dame Isobel Cripps, she was th ...

, who was an author. One of their three sons is the British actor

Adetomiwa Edun Babatunde Adetomiwa Stafford "Tomiwa" Edun, (born 1985)Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage 2003, vol. 3, p. 3063Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage, 1995, ed. Patrick Montague-Smith, Debrett's Peerage Ltd, p. 986 is a UK-based Nigerian acto ...

. Edun is a board member and the Nigerian chair of the Duke of Edinburgh's International Award Foundation. He is chairman of Lagos Boxing Hall of Fame, a non-profit youth development organization that runs amateur boxing in Lagos. He is also the chairman of Livewell Initiative, a health-based NGO.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Edun, Wale Cripps–Appiah–Edun family Living people Alumni of the University of London Alumni of University of London Worldwide Alumni of the University of Sussex Nigerian bankers Finance ministers of Nigeria Year of birth missing (living people)