Sonnie Babatunde Ayere

Introduction

Sonnie Babatunde Ayere – born 25 September 1966, is a trained financial economist, investment banker and entrepreneur. He is the Founder and Group Managing Director of DLM Capital Group Limited, a Developmental Investment & Lending Bank. The institution was founded in 2009.

Early Life

Sonnie Ayere was born at St. Mary’s Hospital, Paddington, Westminster, London to Nigerian Parents, Gideon and Ebunoluwa Alatise Ayere. He initially grew up in London and returned to Nigeria in 1970. He attended St. Catherine’s Model School and Government College in Lagos. He later achieved a MA(Hons) degree in Financial Economics (2:1) from the University of Dundee, Scotland, and later an MBA in finance from the Business School, University of London, England. He also studied Corporate Finance at London Business School.

Career

Sonnie Ayere began his career with NatWest Bank in London as a Corporate Banking Officer in 1993, and then in 1996, moved on to Sumitomo-Mitsui Bank working in corporate and property finance. He then transferred to the structured finance department of the bank in 1997, completing the first Japanese CLO securitization transaction, working with the Lehman Brothers team. He left Sumitomo Mitsui to join BMO Nesbitt Burns London (the investment banking arm of the Bank of Montreal) in 1998 as part of the team responsible for setting up a US$20bn Fixed Income Structured Investment Vehicle (“SIV”). In 2001, he joined the Global Structured Finance Group of the International Finance Corporation (The World Bank Group) in Washington D.C. and later in Johannesburg, South Africa where he was initially responsible for originating structured finance and securitization transactions globally; then in July 2002, he assumed the role of Structured Finance Specialist for Sub-Saharan Africa where he was responsible for developing structured finance and securitization transactions in addition to developing debt capital markets and instruments for the corporation and its clients across the continent.

In 2004, he pioneered IFC’s interest and championed the development of the Nigerian Sovereign bond market and was the principal IFC adviser to the Nigerian Debt Management Office on the development of the market. It successfully took off in 2006 with the first issuance calendar.

Following this achievement, he joined Tony Elumelu’s UBA Bank team as the pioneer managing director of United Capital Plc in July 2005. He left in 2009 and founded DLM Capital Group. He twice was the vice president of the Issuing Houses of Nigeria, in 2007 and 2014 and then became President from 2016 – 2018. He was also a non-executive director of AIICO Insurance Plc from 2012 – 2018. Additionally, he is the chairman of Unique Group of Schools. He was an adviser to the Lagos State Government under Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola to set up the Lagos Mortgage Board and Lagos-Homs He was task manager appointed by Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to set up the Nigeria Mortgage Refinance Company Plc (NMRC) and was appointed the inaugural managing director in 2014. He also set up and chairs Mortgage Warehouse Funding Limited.

In 2018, Sonnie Ayere was tasked by the Council of Petroleum & Energy Ministers of Africa under the chairmanship of Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, to set up the Africa Energy Investment Corporation (AEICORP).

Sonnie was a member of the Inaugural Nigerian Bond Steering Committee set up by Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala in 2006, he sat on the SEC committee on Market structure & reforms, the Steering Committee for the review of the Foreclosure and Securitization Law of Nigeria and the CBN FSS2020 Steering Committee. He is also a member of the Capital Market Master Plan Implementation Committee (CAMMIC) as well as an avid commentator on financial market developments in Nigeria and across the African continent.

Awards

Mr. Ayere has been bestowed with several awards such as, the West Africa Nobles Forum Award; Dr. Kwame Nkrumah Africa Leadership Award, Ghana, the Best Male Entrepreneur, Investment Services; International Business Star Award, Ghana; Winner Top 10 CEOs in Nigeria Insight Global Awards, United Kingdom; Africa’s Patriotic Personality of the Year Award from LEADS Africa and many others. He was conferred with an Honorary Doctorate Degree in Science (DSc) from the European-American University.

The West African Youth Council also recognized Mr. Ayere as Winner of the ECOWAS Icon of Societal Development and African Man of the Year in 2020.

In 2020, Sonnie Ayere was also named Investment Banking CEO of the Decade at the Business Day Banking and Financial Institutions Awards.

Philanthropy

He is the founder of DLM Foundation, a charitable nonprofit organization set up to assist very bright children from disadvantaged backgrounds with their educational needs.