Mrs. Chidinma Lawanson has worked Diamond Bank Plc for the last fourteen years, the first Nigerian bank quoted on the Professional Securities Market (GDR) of the London Stock Exchange. As a group head of the Retail Banking Division experienced in operations, credit and marketing, she oversees the availment of deposits, loan products and consulting services of several branches.

Mrs. Lawanson led the bank’s strategic team that handled the conversion of its IT-banking platform to a more robust one, which earned her the Chairman’s Commendation. She also headed the bank’s Retail Implementation Strategy and Mortgage Initiative Projects.

Mrs. Lawanson holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from University of Calabar, Nigeria (she graduated magna cum laude). She also earned a postgraduate diploma in computer science in 1991 from Obafemi Awolowo University and attended the prestigious Senior Management Program at Lagos Business School at the Pan African University in Nigeria in 2006.

During her Humphrey year at Boston University, Mrs. Lawanson will work to deepen her knowledge of regulatory frameworks governing financial availments to emerging companies in the United States. She aims to utilize the banking platform to effectively administer and set up monitors for such availments to Nigerian emerging companies.